iet so exclusive that no other could replace it. What would become of
the Swallow if he required, in order to live, one particular Gnat, a
single Gnat, always the same? When once this Gnat had disappeared--and
the life of the Mosquito is not a long one--the bird would die of
starvation. Fortunately for himself and for the happiness of our homes,
the Swallow gulps them all down indiscriminately, together with a host
of other insects that perform aerial ballets. What would become of the
Lark were his gizzard able to digest only one seed, invariably the same?
When the season for this seed was over--and the season is always a short
one--the haunter of the furrows would perish.

Is not man's complaisant stomach, adapted to the largest variety of
nourishment, one of his great zoological privileges? He is thus rendered
independent of climates, seasons and latitudes. And the Dog: how is
it that of all the domestic animals he alone is able to accompany us
everywhere, even on the most arduous expeditions? The Dog again is
omnivorous and therefore a cosmopolitan.

The discovery of a new dish, said Brillat-Savarin, is of greater
importance to humanity than the discovery of a new planet. The aphorism
is nearer to the truth than it appears to be in its humorous form.
Certainly the man who was the first to think of crushing wheat, kneading
flour and cooking the paste between two hot stones was more deserving
than the discoverer of the two-hundredth asteroid. The invention of
the potato is certainly as valuable as that of Neptune, glorious as the
latter was. All that increases our alimentary resources is a discovery
of the first merit. And what is true of man cannot be other than true
of animals. The world belongs to the stomach which is independent of
specialities. This truth is of the kind that has only to be stated to be
proved.

Let us now return to our insects. If I am to believe the evolutionists,
the various game-hunting Wasps are descended from a small number of
types, which are themselves derived, by an incalculable number of
concatenations, from a few amoebae, a few monera and lastly from the
first clot of protoplasm which was casually condensed. Let us not go
back as far as that; let us not plunge into the fogs where illusion and
error too easily find a lurking-place. Let us consider a subject with
exact limits to it; this is the only way to understand one another.

The Sphegidae are descended from a single type, which it