no tempting juices for the destroying 
Bird. But the same Providence which 
gave these marvelous powers of mim- 
icry also gave the other parties the 
eyes to see and apparent judgment to 
penetrate the mask and secure the 
needed meal. And so the ravening 
Beast sometimes fastens himself upon 
the Giraffe in spite of the disguise and 
the Bird finds the Butterfly in his cur- 
ious garb. 
Those who know least about Nature 
are loudest in their praise of her 
remarkable adaptations for special ends. 
Those who know most about her are 
obliged to confess that while her ways 
are marvelous indeed and her adapta- 
tions strangely effective and various yet 
she does not provide accurately and cer- 
tainly for all contingencies. 
In fact there is no such thing in 
Nature as a perfect adaptation. No 
living thing is perfectly protected from 
its enemies. No part is accurately 
adjusted to the part to which it is 
to be applied. The beak and talons 
of the Eagle are not perfectly adapted 
to flesh tearing. The hoof of the 
Arabian Horse is not perfectly adapted 
to carrying him over the sands of the 
the desert, but the very preservation 
of the horse upon the sands requires 
that he shall be peculiarly shod to 
protect his hoof. No animal that Flies 
attack has a tail capable of whisking 
them from every part of its body. A 
Dog's teeth are beautifully adapted 
to many purposes, but he cannot 
remove a Tick from his skin. The 
Cat has particularly keen sight, adjust- 
able to all degrees of light. But when 
the Ocelot was being photographed for 
the July number of Birds and all 
Nature the old Cat that purrs about 
the studio was not keen enough to 
see that it was a mounted animal. He 
came forward in a most belligerent 
attitude with glaring eyes and dis- 
tended tail. When the artist gave the 
stuffed beast a slight motion the af- 
frighted cat sped down the stairway 
and out of the building with the celer- 
ity hitherto entirely unsuspected in him. 
There is no eye in Nature that sees 
perfectly and no ear that hears all that 
is going on. One animal is superior 
to others in certain ways, but none is 
perfect. All wings are not for flight. 
Some are better than others for sweep- 
ing through the air, but perfection is 
found in none. 
In most animals are found organs 
which are not of use. They frequently 
resemble organs that are of the highest 
utility to some other form of life, but 
for the animal in question they are 
apparently waste material. When the 
Horse uses but one toe of each foot 
there seems to be little reason for his 
having the rudimentary forms of more. 
There are claws on the legs of many 
Dogs that have never been called into 
action. They are so far from the 
ground and so weak and immovable 
that the Dog himself does not know 
they are there. 
In every man there are muscles 
beneath the scalp for moving the ear. 
We have no such need for ear motion 
as have many of the lower animals, 
but it is the despair of many a school 
boy to discover how few of the race 
are able to contract these muscles ever 
so slightly. 
The Lammergeier, or Bearded Vul- 
ture, is instinctively instructed to 
42 
