The Woodpeckers Part 6

But if the birds are making themselves into new species, where is the place for G.o.d in the universe? Did not G.o.d make all kinds of creatures in the beginning? How can they go on being made without G.o.d?

These are questions every one ought to ask, but--did G.o.d leave his world after He had made it and go a long way off? Did He wind it up like a watch to go till it should run down? Is the world a machine, or is it alive?

Long ago the wise and good man Socrates argued that if you did not know there was a G.o.d at all, you could at least infer it because everything was so wonderfully made. "There is our body," said he: "every part of it so perfect and so reasonable. Consider how the eyes not only please us with agreeable sensations but are protected in every way. The eyebrows stand like a thicket to keep the perspiration from them, the lids are a curtain to shut out too great light, the lashes screen them from dust,--everything is planned for some wise and reasonable end. And where the evidence of design is so convincing must we not believe that there was a Designer?" Words like these he spoke, and we know because everything is so perfectly contrived that there must have been a contriver, who knew all from the beginning. We are compelled to believe that there is a G.o.d.

Shall we believe it less because we find in the creatures about us intelligence and the power to care for their own lives? Has G.o.d gone on a visit because these living creatures are looking out for themselves?

Were they made less perfectly in the beginning because when new conditions surround them they are able to change to meet the strange requirements? This is not less evidence of a Designer, but more. It was long said that the existence of a watch was proof of a watchmaker who had planned and put together all the parts so that they worked harmoniously. But if the watch had the power to grow small to fit a small pocket, or large to fit a large one, to become luminous by night, and to correct its own time by the sun instead of being regulated by outside interference, what should we have said--that it was proof there was no watchmaker? or that it showed a far more skillful one, since he could make a living, self-regulating, adaptive watch?

And so of the world and the creatures in it. Every evidence we get that they can care for themselves, that they can adapt themselves to new conditions, that they are intelligent and reasonable, capable of improvement in habits or in structure, is so much surer proof that a wise G.o.d made them what they are. Evolution--for that is the name by which we call these changes--does not take G.o.d out of the universe but makes the need of Him stronger. The argument from design is immensely strengthened when we consider that we have not only an obedient machine acting according to a few fundamental rules, but one that is intelligent also and capable of self-modification.

APPENDIX

_Explanation of Terms._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Head of a Flicker.]

_a._ Forehead; _b._ crown; _c._ occiput; _d._ nape; _e._ chin; _f._ throat; _g._ jaw-patch, or mustache.

_Occipital_ means "on the occiput."

_Nuchal_ means "on the nape."

_Primaries_ are the nine or ten wing-quills borne upon the last joint of the wing.

_Secondaries_ are the wing-quills attached to the fore-arm bones.

_Tertiaries_ are the wing-quills springing from the upper arm bones.

_Wing coverts_ are the shorter lines of feathers overlapping these long quills.

_Tail coverts_ are the lengthened feathers that overlap the root of the tail both above and below, called respectively upper and under tail coverts.

_Ear coverts_ are the feathers that over-lie the ear, often specially modified or colored.

_Rump_, the s.p.a.ce between the middle of the back and the root of the tail.

[M] is the sign used to indicate the male s.e.x.

[F] is the sign used to indicate the female s.e.x.

A _subspecies_ is a geographical race, modified in size, color, or proportions chiefly by the influence of climate. These variations are especially marked in non-migratory birds of wide distribution, subject, therefore, to climatic extremes. The Downy and the Hairy Woodp.e.c.k.e.rs, for example, are split up into numerous races. It should be remembered that when a species has been separated into races, or subspecies, all the subspecies are of equal rank, even though they are differently designated. The one originally discovered and first described bears the old Latin name which consisted of two words, while the new ones are designated by triple Latin names--the old binomial and a new name in addition. The binomial indicates the form first described. The forms designated by trinomials may be equally well known, abundant, and widely distributed. For example, among the woodp.e.c.k.e.rs, the northern form of the Hairy Woodp.e.c.k.e.r was first discovered and bears the name _Dryobates villosus_; but the first Downy Woodp.e.c.k.e.r described was a southern bird, and the northern form was not separated until a few years ago, so that the southern bird is the type, and the northern one bears the trinomial, _Dryobates p.u.b.escens media.n.u.s_.

_North America_, by the decision of the American Ornithologists'

Union, is held to include the continent north of the present boundary between Mexico and the United States, with Greenland, the peninsula of Lower California, and the islands adjacent naturally belonging to the same.

The following key and descriptions will enable the student to identify any woodp.e.c.k.e.r known to occur within these limits:

A. KEY TO THE WOODp.e.c.k.e.rS OF NORTH AMERICA.

Family characteristics: color always striking, usually in spots, bars, or patches of contrasting colors, especially black and white. s.e.xes usually unlike; male always with some portion of red or yellow about head, throat, or neck. Tails stiff, rounded, composed of ten fully developed pointed feathers (and two undeveloped feathers). Wings large, rounded, with long, conspicuous secondaries, and short coverts. Bill straight, stout, of medium length. Toes four, arranged in pairs, except in the three-toed genus. Iris brown, except when noted. Marked by a habit of clinging to upright surfaces and digging a deep hole in a tree-trunk for nesting. Eggs always pearly white.

I. Very large--18 inches _or more_; conspicuously crested. A. II. Medium or small--14 inches _or less_; never crested. B.

A. a^1 Bill gleaming _ivory white_; fourth toe decidedly longest.

Ivory-billed Woodp.e.c.k.e.r. 1.

a^2 Bill _blackish_; fourth toe not decidedly longest.

Pileated Woodp.e.c.k.e.r or Logc.o.c.k. 14.

B. a^1 Toes three; [M] with _yellow_ crown.

Three-toed Woodp.e.c.k.e.rs. 9 & 10.

a^2 Toes four; crown never yellow (b).

b^1 _Not spotted nor streaked either above or below_ (c).

c^1 Body clear black; _head white_.

White-headed Woodp.e.c.k.e.r. 8.

c^2 Blue-black above; _rump white_; _head_ and _neck red_.

Red-headed Woodp.e.c.k.e.r. 15.

c^3 Greenish black above, with _pinkish red belly_.

Lewis's Woodp.e.c.k.e.r. 17.

c^4 Greenish black with _sulphur yellow forehead_ and _throat._ Californian Woodp.e.c.k.e.r. 16.

c^5 Glossy blue-black with _scarlet throat_ and _yellow belly_.

Male of Williamson's Sapsucker. 13.

b^2 _Spotted with black or brown on breast and sides_, but not streaked nor barred with white (d).

d^1 _Brown_ spots on breast and sides; upper parts plain brown.

Arizona Woodp.e.c.k.e.r. 7.

d^2 _Black_ spots on breast and sides; wings and tail brilliantly colored beneath (e).

e^1 Wings and tail _golden_ beneath; mustaches _black_ in male, wanting in female.

Flicker. 21.

e^2 Wings and tail _golden_ beneath; mustaches _red_ in both s.e.xes.

Gilded Flicker. 23.

e^3 Wings and tail _golden red_ beneath; mustaches red.