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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
or
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
on
on
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
or
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