...
across the state, mostly on back roads. At one point the state raised the
maximum speed limit from 55 to 65 mph, the change to be made effective on a
particular Monday.
I was driving across the northern edge of Nebraska on that day, and of
course drove the new speed limit. Over and over and over I begin to hit
birds which were sweeping across the road in front of my car.
...
I struck an unconscionably large number of birds during the first part of
that week, but during the following weeks, I seldom hit a bird. The
frequency was as it was before the speed limit increase.
The Darwinian observation was very clear. I had changed the parameters of
the game, and those birds that could not learn to time themselves relative
to the now much faster cars, were selected from the population.