50 XATUKE STUDY IN SCHOOLS. 



mi.iuts particulars. Two of these are found in the West, and one has a very 

 rufous tail ( the Dwarf Hermit Thrush ) and another, a rather dull rufous 

 tail ( Audubon's Hermit Thrush ) while a third form, which occurs in the 

 East is about intermediate between the two others in regard to the color on 

 the tail. As we know, our Bird comes from the East, from New Eng- 

 land, in fact, and as it answers to the description given of the third form, 

 we readily decide that it is a Hermit Thrush. 



Now if we could see a large number of these three forms of Hermit 

 Thrushes together, taken from different localities, we would probably find that 

 there were a number of these which presented intergrading phases of coloration, 

 and which we could not exactly refer to any of the three forms. These 

 would really be intergrading types, and where such intergrading specimens 

 occur, we know that they indicate that the forms between which they are 

 intermediates, have not become wholly separated from one another in the 

 progress of evolution. Hence we call forms which still have these intergrad- 

 ing birds Sub-species. 



Relow Sub-species are Individuals. Our Heimit Thrush is an Individu- 

 al, and is unlike .any other Hermit Thrush, for there are no two Hermit 

 Thrushes alike," any more than there aie any two men or wcmen who are 

 exactly alike. 



EVOLUTION IN NATURE, 



We have seen that no two Hermit Thrushes are alike, and this is also 

 true, to a greater or less extent, with all natural objects about us. 



The rule then is, that nature never casts anything twice in the same 

 mould. No two things are alike throughout the universe, not even two 

 leaves on the same tree, nor two blades of grass in a wide prairie. No two 

 grains of sand on the seashore, nor any two of the vast heids of antelope 

 that roam the plains of Africa are alike. Similar to others, they may be but, 

 differing in some particulars, minute though they be. Thus from atoms to 

 mighty suns, individuality is the rule, all differ and all are constantly vary- 

 ing. The child is never, in any case, the exact counterpart of either parent, 

 nor are children of the same parents exactly alike. 



This individual variation, small though it may be, strikes the key note 

 which vibrates through all of the universe, and is the undoubted origin of all 

 the varied forms of animal and vegetable life. 



Let one or more of the offspring of any one species of living organisms 

 be placed under different surroundings from those of any form in which its 

 parents lived, either climatic or otherwise, and the individualism usually in 

 creases, especially in its offspring, in the second generation, this variation is 

 more pronounced, and in the third, still more, and so on, until at length 



