The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-01-29

peering closely ana thoroughly about amid
the golden and brown and red leaves of the
autumn foliage, | presently espied my hider
on a twig, his dull browniSn-red- breast
hardly jistinguishable from the turning
leaves that surrounded him. Again he saw
l had found him, but he seemed TO know
could not hurt him (birds and the other
small game speedily come to know their
human foes are only dangerous when armed
and this time he sat still and began to sing.
Natural selection had done a guOi deal for
that fellow. TO an enemy looking at him
from above he must have appeared very
similar in color to the branch on which he
sat. By me, looking up at him from below,
he was readily mistakabe for one of the
autumn leaves.
You will experience the same bewildering.
hide-and-seek tactics on natures part il
YOU go nuttng. some pleasant day. Don't
you remember how. looking ND into the
tree, you found it q tficult TO distinguish the
green-burred chestnuts and shay barked
hickOreS from the green leaves among
which they hung. while you had to search
long and carefully among the brown, soft
earth and fallen leaves for the fallen nuts,
turned brown and dingy, like the earth,
and lying hidden by leaves from the spoil
ers' hand?
These are Instances OF what natural Sc
lection does for the nut, the bird and the
clam. Sexual selection, to which the or
nithologist referred SO gliby, is very dif-
ferent thing. We see the action of both
these processes in the brilliant butterfly,
the stupidest of insects, flappiug his aim
less way through the sunshine and among
the flowers. The butterfly knows but one
thing-color attraction. He can distin-
guish between nearby plants the most
brilliantly cOlored one-brilliantly colored
for the express purpose of attracting
him and his kind, ttat its life may be re-
produced. and he has just intelligen ce
OF choice enough to decide-betwee two
on which of tho two he shall light. 1t
being color alone that attracts the butterfly,
his broad-spread wings are, on their upoer
surface. gayly marked and colored, that in
their tuttering course they may attract 70
him suitable mate. Thus much sexual
selection. But the under sides of those
same wings are dull in hue-brownish
green, like many leaves. This dark hued
lining to the brilliant wings has come about
through an age-l0ng process Of natural Sc
lection, and is necessary to the protection
OF the gaudy insect from the attacks of
birds ever on the alert and searching for
just such dainty tidbits as himself. Perched
upon flower, his wings folded tightly to-
gether. he is very dingy and nconspicu-
Gus mark in a bird's-eye view, and so
escapes much oftener than he otherwise
would do.
He Is much less beautiful in this position,
and like many higher creature would
never attract mate while eating, but
natural selection takes no account of that.
Natural selection. like all evolutionary pro-
cesses. works up and down and sidew ise
1t aims to fit the creature to survive, and
the survival of the fittest does not by any
means always signify the survival of the
best and highest type. 1t means merely
the survival of that which can live under
existing conditions.
Isaw two young lambs fighting once on a
green slope among the Livermore hills
There was a whole flock Of the young,
frisking creatures with their mothers, all
playing or lying about or the smooth green
upland paSturage. and these two fellows
had dispute over the possession of a little
hilloek, and had evidently decided to settle
the difficulty by tilt, as gentlemen used to
do in the age of chivary. They would
retreat a little distance and then
rush at each other. full tilt. bringing their
skulls together with crash that seemed
likely to crush the bono and dash out the
brains Of the contestants. Over and over
again they did this. one or the other being
knocked down, but always managing to
come to time and renew the conflict AS /