CAUSES OF EXTINCTION 
CHAP. VIII 
186 
living monkeys ? and yet in this comparative rarity, we should 
have the plainest evidence of less favourable conditions for 
their existence. To admit that species generally become rare 
before they become extinct—to feel no surprise at the com¬ 
parative rarity of one species with another, and yet to call in 
some extraordinary agent and to marvel greatly when a species 
ceases to exist, appears to me much the same as to admit that 
sickness in the individual is the prelude to death—to feel no 
surprise at sickness—but when the sick man dies, to wonder, 
and to believe that he died through violence. 
LADIES’ COMBS, BANDA ORIENTAL. 
