Natural Selection and Tropical Nature: Essays on Descriptive and Theoretical BiologyMacmillan and Company, 1891 - 492 pages |
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Page viii
... Forests V. THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIRDS ' NESTS 91-97 Instinct or Reason in the Construction of Birds ' Nests - Do Men build by Reason or by Imitation ? -Why does each Bird build a peculiar kind of Nest ? -How do young Birds learn to build ...
... Forests V. THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIRDS ' NESTS 91-97 Instinct or Reason in the Construction of Birds ' Nests - Do Men build by Reason or by Imitation ? -Why does each Bird build a peculiar kind of Nest ? -How do young Birds learn to build ...
Page x
... Forest - belt and its Causes - General Features of the Equa- torial Forests - Characteristics of the Larger Forest - Trees - Flowering Trunks and their Probable Cause - Uses of Equatorial Forest - trees- The Climbing Plants of the ...
... Forest - belt and its Causes - General Features of the Equa- torial Forests - Characteristics of the Larger Forest - Trees - Flowering Trunks and their Probable Cause - Uses of Equatorial Forest - trees- The Climbing Plants of the ...
Page 13
... forest loses a limb , it may be replaced by a feeble and sickly substitute . The foregoing remarks appear to apply to the case of the Mollusca , which , at a very early period , had reached a high organisation and a great development of ...
... forest loses a limb , it may be replaced by a feeble and sickly substitute . The foregoing remarks appear to apply to the case of the Mollusca , which , at a very early period , had reached a high organisation and a great development of ...
Page 38
... forests which never lose their foliage , that we find whole groups of birds whose chief colour is green . The parrots are the most striking example , but we have also a group of green pigeons in the East ; and the barbets , leaf ...
... forests which never lose their foliage , that we find whole groups of birds whose chief colour is green . The parrots are the most striking example , but we have also a group of green pigeons in the East ; and the barbets , leaf ...
Page 44
... forests and fly very swiftly . They were never seen to settle on a flower or a green leaf , but were many times lost sight of in a bush or tree of dead leaves . On such occasions they were generally searched for in vain , for while 44 ...
... forests and fly very swiftly . They were never seen to settle on a flower or a green leaf , but were many times lost sight of in a bush or tree of dead leaves . On such occasions they were generally searched for in vain , for while 44 ...
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Common terms and phrases
abundant action adapted allied species America animals ants appear bamboo Batavia beautiful become bees beetles birds branches brilliant butterflies caterpillars causes chaffinches character civilised climate colour Colours of Animals concealment conspicuous curious Darwin distinct earth equatorial zone evidence exactly existence extinct facts families favourable feet female fertilised flowers foliage forests genera genus geological gravel green groups habits humming-birds imitated important increase inhabit insects instinct islands kind larvæ laws less Malay Archipelago male mammalia mimicry mode modified moths natural selection naturalists nectary nest observed occur organic organisation origin Origin of Species ornaments Papilio peculiar phenomena pigeons plants Pliocene plumage probably produced protection race remarkable render resemble savage sexes sexual sexual selection sometimes South South America spots structure sun-birds surface tail temperate theory tints tion trees tropical variation varied variety vegetation whole wings yellow
Popular passages
Page 206 - ... to the other. They appear together, but we do not know why. Were our minds and senses so expanded, strengthened and illuminated as to enable us to see and feel the very molecules of the brain ; were we capable of following all their motions, all their groupings, all their electric discharges, if such there be ; and were we intimately acquainted with the corresponding states of thought and feeling, we should be as far as ever from the • solution of the problem, ' How are these physical processes...
Page 212 - WILL, while we have no knowledge of any other primary cause of force, it does not seem an improbable conclusion that all force may be will-force ; and thus, that the whole universe, is not \ merely dependent on, but actually is, the WILL of higher intelligences or of one Supreme Intelligence.
Page 174 - Tribes in which such mental and moral qualities were predominant would therefore have an advantage in the struggle for existence over other tribes in which they were less developed, would live and maintain their numbers, while the others would decrease and finally succumb.
Page 24 - ... die either by violence or want of food. Yet at this rate how tremendous would be the increase in a few years from a single pair! A simple calculation will show that in fifteen years each pair of birds would have increased to nearly ten millions! whereas we have no reason to believe that the number of the birds of any country increases at all in fifteen or in one hundred and fifty years.
Page 323 - ... are found in the temperate (northern and southern) parts of the continent are migrants, which retire in the winter to the warmer lands near or within the tropics.
Page 206 - ... the passage from the current to the needle, if not demonstrable, is thinkable, and that we entertain no doubt as to the final mechanical solution of the problem. But the passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness is unthinkable.
Page 20 - ... -there suddenly flashed upon me the idea of the survival of the fittest—that the individuals removed by these checks must be on the whole inferior to those that survived. In the two hours that elapsed before my ague fit was over I had thought out almost the whole of the theory, and the same evening I sketched the draft of my paper, and in the two succeeding evenings wrote it out in full, and sent it by the next post to Mr. Darwin.
Page 182 - ... a grand revolution was effected in nature, a revolution which in all the previous ages of the earth's history had had no parallel, for a being had arisen who was no longer necessarily subject to change with the changing universe — a being who was in some degree superior to nature, inasmuch as he knew how to control and regulate her action, and could keep himself in harmony with her, not by a change in body, but by an advance of mind.
Page 8 - Such phenomena as are exhibited by the Galapagos Islands, which contain little groups of plants and animals peculiar to themselves, but most nearly allied to those of South America, have not hitherto received any, even a conjectural explanation.
Page 442 - Mtnneiota, 1877, p. 60. are recorded in the first, second, and third volumes of the Reports of the Peabody Museum. The interesting series of researches now briefly recorded has led us on step by step through the several stages of the quaternary at least as far back as the first great Glacial period, thus corresponding to the various epochs of Neolithic and Palaeolithic man in Europe, terminating in the Suffolk flints, claimed to be pre-Glacial by Mr. Skertchley, or the earliest traces of human occupancy...