by flight keep out of the way of their enemies or they could hide by crouching down in the grass and weeds and making themselves as small, sly and inconspicuous as possible. Some pursued one of these courses and some the other. The descendants of those that flew away gradually became developed into the birds as you now have them; while those that resorted to hiding and crouching down, were thus deprived of the opportunity to use their limbs generation after generation and so the limbs gradually became shrunken and useless, finally disappearing completely, or almost so, causing the body to come down flat on its belly on the ground, and thus were produced the serpents as you now have them.” “No doubt,” said I, “the serpents originated in that way. They formerly possessed limbs, because many species still have the rudiments of them. In some cases these remnants show themselves like little hooks on the outside of the skin, while many others are covered up by the skin and are not seen at all. But all that retrogressive adaptation by which they lost their limbs, must have been practically completed before our race possessed any semblance of their present form and condition.” “The earth,” he proceeded, “was full of contending races, and of course the backset that was imposed on the snakes, was contributed to by others, as well as men, but the latter were among the last and as regards the particular family of reptiles in question, the most formidable and effectual opponents. Some of your ancient traditions and literature contain allusions to this contest, the reptile being styled _Nachash_. You preserve an allusion to this ancient competition, in the legends of the Devil, who represents the reptile, and is often called the serpent etc. I recall this history, only to show you that the essential qualities of predominance do not inhere in any particular animal form. Your planet escaped the final domination of a reptile instead of a mammal, by only a little. As you have already perceived the dominant race on our planet is an articulate.” CHAPTER IV. Life In and On the Moon. “I confess,” said I, “that you have demonstrated the possibility of a development among the articulates quite equal at least to that of mammals. You must have animals of some sort in your seas and lakes; what do you do with them?”