42 



It seems to me that in this case of the Brazilian butterflies, 

 a long graduated series from dark to light should be forthcoming 

 if evolution was the origin of the change of colour, but it is the 

 weak spot in the evolutionist's theory that no intermediate 

 forms are ever visible. If this could be shown, natural selec- 

 tion is proved. In the case of the smoke-coloured moths the 

 graduated series can be shown, but as their resting place is also 

 a graduated series, say, from the coal black of London, to the 

 hardly tinted grey smoke colour of Box Hill, colour sensitive- 

 ness may be responsible. As for the exceptionally short time 

 required for lepidoptera, it has, I think, escaped Mr. Carpenter's 

 notice that the imago is only on the tapis for a few days every 

 year, and a still shorter time on the granite, and even supposing 

 the change of colour had only just taken place, for which we have 

 no evidence, the two hundred years would work out at a very 

 short time ! Think also, how a gale, or unpropitious weather 

 generally, would still further reduce the chances of so delicate 

 an organism as a butterfly, from visiting the granite. 



Now compare this with the following. The oldest known 

 picture in the world (Circa, 3,000 B.C.) is a fresco taken from a 

 tomb at Maydoom. In it are four figures, exact representations 

 of our present A . A Ibifrons and A . Ruficollis, showing that these 

 two species have not altered in their wild state one iota in 5,000 

 years. This is all the more miraculous when we consider how 

 conspicuous A. Ruficollis is, both on land and water, and also 

 that plenty of fixed domesticated varieties of both species can 

 be obtained by mankind for their own particular purposes 

 (notably for shows) in quite a short space of time. Yet an 

 evolutionist would say 5,000 years is too short a time to show 

 anything in the way of a change in a goose, though seemingly 

 a few months is long enough for a Brazilian butterfly. Truly 

 an elastic theory ! 



Let us apply this theory to eggs, where protective colouring 

 is so mysteriously uncertain as to have been commented upon 

 by the late Mr. Seebohm, as follows : — 



the peculiarities of form and colour which we 

 find in birds and other animals do not seem to be all accounted 

 for by the theory of the 'survival of the fittest.' There seems to 

 be a correlation of the external colour of many birds with their 

 internal organisation, which is inexplicable on the commonly 

 received view." 



