"I suppose no one is always right, Ned. Why?"

"About that bird--bird he shot. He said it was a kingfisher."

"Well, so it is. You heard him explain about its habits?"

"Yes; and that's what bothers me. How can it be a kingfisher if it
don't fish?"

"You might just as well say, how can it be a kingfisher if it don't fish
for kings."

"No, I mightn't, sir," replied Ned, whose illness seemed to have
developed a kind of argumentative obstinacy. "Nobody nor nothing does
fish for kings, sir, so that's nonsense. But what I say is, how can
that bird be a kingfisher if it don't fish?"

"But it does fish."

"No, it don't, sir; it flits about and catches butterflies, and moths,
and beetles. Doctor said it never caught fish at all, and never dived
down into the water. So what I say is, that it can't be a kingfisher."

"Well, but Doctor Instow says that far away back in the past its
ancestors must have lived on fish; and then the land where they were
changed, till perhaps it was one like this, with plenty of beautiful
little rivers in it, but few fish, and so they had to take to living
upon insects, which they capture on the wing, and they have gone on
doing so ever since."

"Seems rum," said Ned thoughtfully. "Then I suppose if this island was
to change, so that there were no more butterflies, moths, or beadles,
and more fish took to living in the rivers--they'd take to fishing
again?"

"Yes, I suppose so; all things adapt themselves to circumstances."

"Do they now, sir?"

"Yes; but you don't know what I mean."

"No, sir, I'm blessed if I do."

"How stupid! why don't you ask then?"

"'Cause I don't want to bother you, sir, when you're getting tired."

"What nonsense! Always ask if you don't understand me. I meant that I
have read about plants and animals altering in time to suit the place
where they are. If dogs are taken up into the arctic regions they get
in time to have a very thick fur under the hair; and if they are taken
into a hot country like this, they have a very fine silky coat."

"Do they now, sir?" said Ned. "Now I wouldn't have thought that a dog
would have so much gumption. But I don't know, dogs are very knowing."

"I don't think the dog has anything to do with it, Ned; it is a natural
law. Now, if a fir tree is in a sheltered place, where the soil is deep
and sandy, it grows to a tremendous size; but if the seed falls in a
rocky place, where it has to get its roots down cracks