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Show HOW NATURE PROTECTS 1 Did it ever occur to you to wonder why. as between animals of much the same general form and size say, as between the zebra, the horse, and the mule there should exist such marked differences, and differences H kich are perpetuated, generation after af-ter generation' The problem, which puzzled the early scientists has come, within the last few decades, to be quite well understood The answer Is that these changes are all part and parcel of nature's great scheme for the protection protec-tion of her children, the promotion of their comfort and. In the case of the wild creatures, for enabling thm to avoid their enemies and to gain a livelihood. For example: There formerly roamed the African deserts a little creature much like the giraffe, but with Just a normal neck. Here and there he cantered over the desert, feeding on the succulent leaves of the palms that were vWthin easy reach. One year a blight fell on the palm trees; they withered and the leaves died and dropped off. beginning with the lowest and gradually running up to the top Along with their passing went the food of the 6hort-necked giraffes gir-affes By and by there were oniy the top leaves left to eat The smaller small-er animals could not reach these and so perished for want of food Only those giraffes whose necks were long enough to reach the leaves high up survived. Now as provision for Ju6t this thing It is one of nature's inflexible lawv that not only doe6 like reproduce like, but individual characteristics are accentuated. Here were only the extra longneckcd glraffeB left to Interbreed. In-terbreed. Naturally, only this sort would appear among the young, and so the new breed appeared with necks longer than any giraffe had known before Throughout nature one finds, therefore, thl6 gradual adaptation to locality and conditions Every year on the coasts of Labra dor and Newfoundland, thousands of near-seal are slaughtered for their hide, which is a substitute for shoe leather The baby seal or pups' as they are called, are snow-white with a mottling that is grayish. Were these baby seals the dull brown or black of the adults and ca vortlng here and there on the lec fields, don't you see, they would stand out In relief Bears and other foes would see them, make for them and devour them. But against the white Ice the white seal pup is almost in v isible even at a very close distance. By and bv . though, the ice on which these babies are born has broken loose and, caught in the currents, is drifting southward It meets the Gulf stream and melt6 The baby seal must then put to sea. If there. It were a snowy white object such as it was before to be seen swimming the deep blue waters, its foes would spy It at once and devour U forthwith. But by the time the Ice has come so far south as the Gulf stream the ba by's coat has turned to brown and he'B safe. How does this happen? Here is the probable explanation. Once on a time, in a herd of seal, some few-were few-were a bit lighter colored than others oth-ers Now in the course of time, the seals fell afoul of their foes. The bear, let us suppose, saw the darker skinned babies and destroyed them, but the lighter had the more chance to escape. So the lighter, only, were left to Interbreed, and this seeming "fault" of a white Bkln at birth became be-came accentuated, perpetuated The American buffalo is a notable specimen. See how that great broad forehead is built to withstand the gale that sweepB the prairies See the shaggy growth Just over the eyes, to protect, as be lowers the head, from the sand and dust that drive over the plain, Verily. Mother Nature Na-ture equipped this child to withstand anything save the man-made bullet "Look at the zebra, and In his mottled mot-tled coat you see the shadows cast b palm fronds on the sands of his native desert. Set In the edge of the palms the baby and mother are hard I to tell from the wavering background of shrubbery. And so nature protects. pro-tects. Throughout the animal kingdom these adaptations stare one in the face, so to speak. The wonderful coat of the deer, white In winter, making him almost invisible against the snow: the horns. In form and color like the branches of trees what better bet-ter cloak could conceal him from unfriendly un-friendly eyps'' Descend to humbler forms and on our trees you will find, if you Iook sharp, the walking stick, a wee bit of an insect that, for all the world, resembles a few twigs thrown together. to-gether. On the bark, too. thre may rest a butterfly or a night-moth, wit i wings so nearly the color of the wood that only when It proceeds to stir does one recognize It as a thing a pa rt In his "Childhood of Animals" P Chalmers Mitchell says. "There is no quality more generally useful to an animal than that of being inconspicuous. inconspicu-ous. The living world Is a very ae-rlous ae-rlous game of hide-and-seek. In which j nearly every adult animal and those oung ones that are not hidden or protected by their parent must Join. The penalties are eevere. those that are caught are eaten, and those that fall to catch etane Animals may hunt their prey by scent, but there nearly always comes a critical final moment, when they must be able to see the object on which they are to pounce. Animals may escape by swiftness, swift-ness, but it Is extremely useful if they are so Invisible that their enemy cannot easily follow them by sight, and still more useful if when they are hard pressed, or when they have reached a favorable spot, they can suddenly fade into the background and become invisible." Throughout the world this adaptation adapta-tion has led to like seeking like It's a wonderful system and one full of Interest Keep an eye out for It In the next wild things you see or seek You will learn lessons you could never get otherwise, be assured. |