Because the smaller ones are designed to be the food of the larger ones, and are therefore _created in numbers adapted to that end_. An elephant produces but one calf; the whale but one young one; a butterfly lays six hundred eggs; silk-worms lay from 1,000 to 2,000 eggs; the wasp, 5,000; the ant, 4,000 to 5,000; the queen bee, 5,000 to 6,000, or 40,000 to 50,000 in a season; and a species of white ant (_termes fatalis_) produces 86,400 eggs in a day. Birds of prey seldom produce more than two eggs; the sparrow and duck tribe frequently sit upon a dozen; in rivers there prevail a thousand minnows for one pike; and in the sea, a million of herrings for a single shark; while of the animalcules upon which the whale subsists, there must exist hundreds of millions for one whale. 1095. _Why has the whale feathery-like laminæ of whale-bone extending from its jaws?_ Because these feathery bones, lying side by side, form a _sieve, or strainer_, for the large volumes of water which the whale receives into its mouth, drawing off therefrom millions of small animals, which form a jelly-like mass upon which the whale feeds. A whale has been known to weigh as much as 249 tons, and its blubber yielded 4,000 gallons of oil. How many millions of living creatures must have gone to make up that enormous mass of animal matter! [Verse: "Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? * * He paveth the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men."--JOB XXXIX.] 1096. _Why have cats, and various other animals, whiskers?_ The whiskers of cats, and of the cat tribe, are exceedingly sensitive, enabling them, when seizing their prey in the dark, to _feel its position most acutely_. These hairs are supplied, through their roots, with branches of the same nerves that give sensibility to the lips, and that in insects _supply their "feelers."_ 1097. _Why has the horse a smaller stomach proportionately than other animals?_ Because the horse was created for speed. Had he the ruminating stomach of the ox, he would be quite unfitted for the labour which he now so admirably performs. 1098. _Why has the horse no gall-bladder?_ Because the rapid digestion of the horse, by which its fitness for speed is greatly increased, _does not require the storing up of the bile_ as in other animals in which the digestive process is a slower operation. 1099. _Why do certain butterflies lay their eggs upon cabbage leaves?_ Because the cabbage leaves are _the food of the young caterpillars_; and although the butterfly does not subsist herself upon the leaf, she knows by instinct that the leaf will afford food to her future young; she therefore lays her eggs where her young ones will find food. This explanation applies to many insects that lay their eggs upon other plants. 1100. _Why have insects long projections from their heads, like horns or feathers?_