666 BIRDS. 



the incipient birds were "fevered representatives of reptiles, 

 progressing in the direction of greater and greater con- 

 stitutional activity"; but both these suggestions leave 

 much in the dark, leave us still to " wonder how the 

 slow, cold-blooded, scaly beast ever became transformed 

 into the quick, hot-blooded, feathered bird, the joy of 

 creation.' 



