CREATION BY EVOLUTION 



although it agrees in its proportions with the hind foot of 

 other birds, has three separate bones in its arch, similar to 

 the bones that are found in its reptilian ancestor. In the 

 wing the bones of the forearm, the wrist, and the lingers 

 are all separate, and the fingers end in big claws, so that they 

 may have been used for capturing and handling food in 

 exactly the way they were used by the reptilian ancestor, but 

 in a way that no other bird does. Instead of the horny beak 

 of a bird, Archaeopteryx has a row of little teeth that are 

 exactly like those of a lizard. But one of the most inter- 

 esting features of Archaeopteryx is its bony tail, which is 

 longer than the rest of its body and along which there are 

 two rows of quill feathers (Fig. 2) . In the stage that is here 

 represented, in which the wings were not big enough and not 

 rightly placed to support the whole weight of the body and 

 the tail feathers had to carry the hinder part of the body, the 

 long tail was a necessity, but an unfortunate one, because it 

 made it impossible for Archaeopteryx to fly with the perfec- 

 tion exhibited by such modern birds as the eagles and sea- 

 gulls. An eagle rises from the ground by a few powerful 

 strokes of its great wings and then, as soon as it has reached 

 a certain height, it stretches its wings outward and upward, 

 holding them motionless, except for tiny adjustments of their 

 tips for steering, and soars away in gradually widening 

 circles until it finally may become almost too small to be 

 visible. Then, seeing a small animal on the ground, it partly 

 closes its wings, falls headlong to the ground, stops suddenly 

 by expanding its wings and short tail, and lands directly on 

 its prey. No aeroplane can copy this dive, sudden stop, 

 and accurate landing, because an aeroplane becomes uncon- 

 trollable when its speed falls below very high speed; and 

 when it stops it must run for some way along the ground. 

 During the last few years we have learned of the condi- 



[252] 



