Origin of Species Variorum

→ woodpecker, should have been created to 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

a woodpecker, should 1872

→ have been created with 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

possess 1872

→ thrush should have been created to 1859 1860 1861 1866

thrush-like bird should have been created to 1869

thrush-like bird should 1872

→ been created with 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

the 1872

↑ 5 blocks not present in 1859 1860 1861; present in 1866 1869 1872

We can understand how it is that such harmonious beauty generally prevails throughout nature. That there are exceptions according to our ideas of beauty, no one will doubt who will look at some of the venomous snakes, at some fish, and at certain hideous bats with a distorted resemblance to the human face. Sexual selection has given, generally to the males alone but sometimes to both sexes, the most brilliant and beautiful colours, as well as other ornaments, to our birds, butterflies, and a few other animals. It has rendered the voices of many male birds musical to their females, as well as to our ears. Flowers and fruit have been rendered conspicuous by gaudy colours in contrast with the green foliage, in order that the flowers might be easily seen, visited, and fertilised by insects, and the fruit have their seeds disseminated by birds.

↑ 1 blocks not present in 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869; present in 1872

How it comes that certain colours, sounds, and forms should give pleasure to man and the lower animals,— that is, how the sense of beauty in its simplest form was first acquired,— we do not know any more than how certain odours and flavours were first rendered agreeable.

→ the 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

and improves the 1872

→ the degree of perfection of their associates; 1859 1860 1861 1866

the other inhabitants; 1869

their co-inhabitants; 1872

→ specially created and 1859 1860 1861 1866

created and specially 1869 1872

→ and if some 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

as in the case even 1872

→ be 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

human eye; or if some of them be 1872

→ causing 1859 1860 1861 1866

when used against an enemy often causing 1869

when used against an enemy, causing 1872

→ with the great majority 1860 1861 1866

and being then 1859 1869 1872

in variety, though niggard in innovation. But why this should be a law of nature if each species

had

has

been

independently

in dependently

created, no man can explain.

Many other facts are, as it seems to me, explicable on this theory. How strange it is that a bird, under the form of →woodpecker, should have been created to prey on insects on the ground; that upland

geese

geese,

which

rarely

never

rarely

swim, should →have been created with webbed feet; that a →thrush should have been created to dive and feed on sub-aquatic insects; and that a petrel should have →been created with

the habits

habits

and structure fitting it for the life of an

auk

auk!

or grebe!

....

and so

in endless other cases. But on the view of each species constantly trying to increase in number, with natural selection always ready to adapt the slowly varying descendants of each to any unoccupied or

ill-occu- pied

ill-occupied

place in nature, these facts cease to be strange, or

~~perhaps~~

perhaps

might even have been anticipated. ↑ ↑

As natural selection acts by competition, it

renders

adapts

→the inhabitants of each country

perfect only

only

in relation to →the degree of perfection of their associates; so that we need feel no surprise at the

species

inhabitants

of any one country, although on the ordinary view supposed to have been →specially created and adapted for that country, being beaten and supplanted by the naturalised productions from another land.

Nor

ought we to marvel if all the contrivances in nature be not, as far as we can judge, absolutely

perfect,

perfect;

→and if some of

the

them

→be abhorrent to our ideas of fitness. We need not marvel at the sting of the

bee,

bee

→causing the

bees

bee's

own death; at drones being produced in such

great

vast

numbers for one single act, →with the great majority slaughtered by their sterile sisters; at the astonishing waste of pollen by our fir-trees; at the instinctive hatred of the

queen-bee

queen bee

for her own fertile daughters; at ichneumonidæ feeding within