"
"That, my son, is instinct, nothing more; the operation of keeping up
a fire, by throwing a few branches upon it, is exceedingly simple, but
their instinct has never been known to rise to that amount of
intelligence."
"You recollect, father, that heathcock we saw some years ago
displaying his glossy plumage to the dazzled hens; is that not a
well-marked proof of coquetry? and is not this coquetry an indication
of something more than mere instinct?"
"You will permit me to believe, my son, at least till the contrary has
been proved, that these actions to which you refer have nothing at all
to do with coquetry. Those brilliant colors are designed for a purpose
other than that which you suppose; they serve as signals to keep the
community together, or, in other words, they are a common centre round
which the hens may revolve."
"The transition from apes to heathcocks," remarked Jack, "appears to
me somewhat abrupt."
"Not so abrupt as you think, Master Jack," said Wolston; "those who
take the trouble to study Nature, observe an admirable gradation and
easy progression from a simple to a complex organization. There is no
race or species that is not connected by a perceptible link with that
which precedes and that which follows."
"What relation is there, for example," inquired Jack, "between an
oyster and a horse?"
"No immediate relation certainly, but there are intermediate links by
which the two are brought together: they may be regarded, however, as
the opposite extremes of the brotherhood--the two poles in the chain
of existence.
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