BIRD GENEALOGY 



To Darwin more than to any one else we 

 owe a large debt of gratitude for the intellec- 

 tual stimulus added to the study of all 

 branches of natural history. The varying 

 forms and colors of the land snails of the 

 Polynesian Islands interested the old-time 

 naturalist in the same way that a collection 

 of china cups or of postage stamps interests 

 the specialist in those lines to-day. But these 

 variations of the land snails present to the 

 modern student of evolution features of stu- 

 pendous interest, even to the extent of throw- 

 ing light on the formation of coral atolls, or 

 on the subject of the previous existence of 

 a great continent. 



Archaeopteryx, the most ancient bird, as 

 its name would imply, had teeth in its jaws, 

 separate hip bones, vertebrae that were cup- 

 shaped on both sides, claws on its front limbs 

 and a long bony tail,— all marks of the rep- 

 tile, among which group it might still be 

 placed by some were it not for the fact that 

 the impression of its feathers has been pre- 

 served to us and stamps its essential bird 

 nature. 



Now if birds are descended from reptiles, 

 one may perhaps still find some trace of this 



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