The Winners in Life's Race

CHAPTER IX.. From the Lower and Small Milk-Givers Which Find Safety in

FROM THE LOWER AND SMALL MILK-GIVERS WHICH FIND SAFETY IN CONCEALMENT, TO THE INTELLIGENT APES AND MONKEYS 209

PICTURE-HEADING--Ideal forms of the early Herbivora and Carnivora. In the foreground Paleotherium, Anoplotherium, and Eohippus (this last only restored conjecturally); in the background, Xiphodon and Arctocyon (this last also only an approximation); on the tree, a small lemur; and in front, a hedgehog.

CHAPTER X.. The Large Milk-Givers Which Have Conquered the World by

THE LARGE MILK-GIVERS WHICH HAVE CONQUERED THE WORLD BY STRENGTH AND INTELLIGENCE 256

PICTURE-HEADING--Animals which lived in Europe during the warm periods before the Glacial Cold. On the right, Deinotherium, Mastodon; in background, Helladotherium, ancient giraffes; on the left, Hippopotamus, Tapir, Rhinoceros, Hyæna; in the tree, Pithecus pentelicus. All these animals, except the giraffe, were living in England in the late Tertiary Period. (From various sources.)

CHAPTER XI.. How the Backboned Animals Have Returned to the Water, and Large

HOW THE BACKBONED ANIMALS HAVE RETURNED TO THE WATER, AND LARGE MILK-GIVERS IMITATE THE FISH 299

PICTURE-HEADING--An ideal scene of Europe in the Glacial Period with the “Hairy Mammoth” in the foreground.

CHAPTER XII.

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF BACKBONED LIFE 333

PICTURE-HEADING--Man as he lived in caves after the Glacial Period, among animals of species many of them now extinct--the cave bear (Ursus spelæus), cave lion, cave hyæna (Hyæna spelæa), elk, musk-sheep (Ovibos moschatus), mammoth (Elephas primigenius), and the sabre-toothed tiger (Machairodus), fighting with the man.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PICTURE-HEADINGS described under “Contents.”

Frontispiece. FISH OF THE DEEP SEA--1. Chauliodus, one foot long; 2, 9, 10, 11. Harpodon or Bombay Duck, six inches; 3. Plagiodus, six feet; 4. Chiasmodus, one foot, with Scopelus in its stomach; 6. Beryx, one foot and a half; 8. Scopelus, one foot.

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The Lancelet, Amphioxus lanceolatus 11

Sea-Squirt or Ascidian 14

Lamprey and Ammocœtes 16

Structure of Minnow and Living Fish 23

The Blue Shark 29

The Sturgeon, Acipenser sturio 31

The Sturgeon’s Head and Feelers 32

The Ceratodus of Queensland 34

Remoras clinging to a Shark 51

Flying-Fish pursued by the Dorado 54

The Fishing Frog, Lophius piscatorius 59

The common Sole, Solea vulgaris 61

The Hippocampus or Sea-Horse 63

Sticklebacks and their Nest, Gasterosteus aculeatus 65

Metamorphosis of the Frog 72

The common smooth Newt, Lissotriton punctatus 78

Proteus of the Carniola Caverns 79

The Axolotl and Amblystoma 80

The Flying Tree-Frog of New Guinea, Rhacophorus Rheinhardti 86

The Tortoise 96

Carapace of the Tortoise 98

Back of a young Tortoise 99

Skeleton of a Lizard 103

Gecko and Chamæleon 105

The Nile Crocodile 108

Skeleton of a Snake 111

Common Ringed Snake 113

The Boa Constrictor 115

The Cobra di Capello 118

Jaw of a Rattlesnake 119

Common English Viper, Pelias berus 121

The Sparrow 125

Skeleton of a Sparrow 126

The Adjutant Bird 128

The Ostrich at full Speed 137

The Giant Moa and Tiny Apteryx 140

A Group of Sea-Birds 144

Albatrosses and Penguins 147

A Group of Wading Birds 149

The Flamingo 150

Brush Turkeys and their Egg Mounds 158

Wood-pigeon on her Nest 160

The great green Woodpecker, Gecinus viridis 163

The Kingfisher, Alcedo ispida 166

Nest of the Common Wren, Troglodytes parvulus 171

Nest of the Tailor-Bird 173

Eagle bringing Food to its Young 175

Jaw of Dromatherium, and Tooth of Microlestes 183

The Duck-billed Platypus and the Echidna 188

Head and Feet of Ornithorhynchus 189

Australian Marsupials 193

Tasmanian Marsupials 197

South American Marsupials and imperfect-toothed Animals 200

African imperfect-toothed Animals 202

Skulls of an Insect-Eater and a Rodent 217

A Group of Insect-Eaters 220

A Group of Rodents 221

The Pyrenean Desman 226

The Beaver 227

The Taguan and the Colugo 231

Skeleton of a Bat 233

A Bat Walking 235

Fruit-Bats hanging in a Mauritius Cave 238

Aye-aye and Lemur 244

Woolly Monkey and Child 247

The Gorilla at Home 254

The Babirusa, a double-tusked Hog 262

Skeleton of a Wild Ass 266

The Camel 270

The Red-deer with branching Antlers 272

A Buffalo Cow defending her Calf 274

The Elephant 277

The Weasel 280

The Ichneumon 281

The Wolf 283

The Tiger 287

The Claw of the Cat or Tiger 289

The Polar Bear and Walrus 294

The Sea Otter 302

Skeleton of the Sea Lion 304

Sea Lion and Seal 306

Sea Lions on the Watch for Wives 311

The Manatee 314

Skeleton of a Whale and Mouth 318

Whale suckling her Young 319

The Porpoise 324

The Sperm Whale 327

CHAPTER I.. The Threshold of Backboned Life.

THE THRESHOLD OF BACKBONED LIFE.

Life, life, everywhere life! This was the cry with which we began our history of the lowest forms of Life’s children, and although we did not then pass on to the higher animals, is it not true that before we reached the end we were overwhelmed with the innumerable forms of living beings? The microscopic lime and flint builders, the spreading sponges, the hydras, anemones, corals, and jelly-fish filled the waters; the star-fish, sea-urchins, crabs, and lobsters crowded the shores; the oysters, whelks, and periwinkles, with their hundreds of companions, struggled for their existence between the tides; while in the open sea thousands of crustaceans and molluscs, with cuttle-fish and terribly-armed calamaries, roamed in search of food. Upon the land the snails and slugs devoured the green foliage, while the vast army of insects filled every nook and cranny in the water, on the land, or in the air. Yes! even among these lower forms we found creatures enough to stock the world over and over again with abundant life, so that even if the octopus had remained the monarch of the sea, and the tiny ant the most intelligent ruler on the land, there would have been no barren space, no uninhabited tracts, except those burning deserts and frozen peaks where life can scarcely exist.

Yet though the world might have been full of these creatures, they would not have been able to make the fullest use of it, for all animal life would have been comparatively insignificant and feeble, each creature moving within a very narrow range, and having but small powers of enjoyment or activity. With the exception of the insects, by far the greater number would, during their whole lives, never wander more than a few yards from one spot, while, though the locust and the butterfly make long journeys, yet the bees and beetles, dragon-flies and ants, would not cross many miles of ground in several generations.

What a curious world that would have been in which the stag-beetle and the atlas-moth could boast of being the largest land animals, except where perhaps some monster land snail might bear them company; while cuttle-fish and calamaries would have been the rulers of the sea, and the crabs and lobsters of the shores! A strangely silent world too. The grasshopper’s chirp as he rubbed his wings together, the hum of the bee, the click of the sharp jaws of the grub of the stag-beetle, eating away the trunk of some old oak tree, would have been among the loudest sounds to be heard; and though there would have been plenty of marvellous beauty among the metallic-winged beetles, the butterflies, and the delicate forms of the sea, yet amid all this lovely life we should seek in vain for any intelligent faces,--for what expression could there be in the fixed and many-windowed eye of the ant or beetle, or in the stony face of the crab?

These lower forms, however, were not destined to have all the world to themselves, for in ages, so long ago that we cannot reckon them, another division of Life’s children had begun to exist which possessed advantages giving it the power to press forward far beyond the star-fish, the octopus, or the insect. This was the Backboned division, to which belong the fish of our seas and rivers; the frogs and toads, snakes, lizards, crocodiles, and tortoises; the birds of all kinds and sizes; the kangaroos; the rats, pigs, elephants, lions, whales, seals, and monkeys.

Is it possible, then, that all these widely different creatures, which are fitted to live not only in all parts of the land, but also in the air above, and the seas and rivers below, and which are, in fact, all those popularly known as “animals,” only form one division out of seven in the real animal kingdom?

Can it be true that while the chalk-builders have one division all to themselves, the sponges forming a transition group, the lasso-throwers another division, the prickly-skinned animals a third, the mollusca a fourth, the worms a fifth, and the insects a sixth, yet the innumerable kinds of birds and beasts, reptiles and fishes, are all sufficiently alike to be included in one single division--the seventh? It seems at first as if this arrangement must be unequal and unnatural; but let us go back for a moment to the beginning, and we shall see that it is not only true, but that quite a new interest attaches to the higher animals when we learn how wonderfully life has built up so many different forms upon one simple plan.

Starting, then, with the first glimmerings of life, we find the minute lime and flint builders, without any parts, making the utmost of their little lives, filling the depths of the sea, and wandering in pools and puddles on the land; acting, in fact, as scavengers for such matter as is left them by other animals. But here their power ends; to take a higher stand in life a more complicated creature is needed, and the sponge-animal, with its two kinds of cells and its numerous eggs, is the next step leading on to the curious division of lasso-throwers. These, in their turn, do their utmost to spread and vary in a hundred different ways. Possessed of a good stomach, of nerves, muscles, powerful weapons, and means for producing eggs and young ones, they fill the waters as hydras, sea-firs, jelly-fish, anemones, and corals. But here they too find their limit, and, without advancing any farther, continue to flourish in their lowly fashion. Meanwhile the tide of life is flowing on in two other channels, striving ever onwards and upwards. On the one hand, the walking star-fish and sea-urchin push forward into active life under the sea, forming, with their relations, a strange and motley group, but one which could scarcely be moulded into higher and more intelligent beings. On the other hand, the oyster and his comrades, with their curious mantle-working secret protect their soft body within by a shelly covering, and by degrees we arrive at the large army of mollusca, headed by the intelligent cuttle-fish. And here this division too ceases to advance. The soft body in its shelly home does not lend itself to wide and great changes, and it was left for other channels to carry farther the swelling tide of life. These take their rise in the lowly, insignificant division of the worms, which may, perhaps, have had something to do with the earliest forms even of the star-fish and mollusca, but which soon shot upwards, on the one hand along a line of its own, while, on the other, we have seen how, in its many-ringed segments, each bearing its leg-like bristles and its line of nerve-telegraph, the worm foreshadowed the insects and crustacea, or the jointed-footed animals of sea and land, forming the sixth division.

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