302 WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



regard to such phases of bird study as had been 

 left untouched. 



It was about the third day out that, in course of 

 the conversation, Shan turned to his friend and 

 asked him, 



*'Mr. Feather Man," — he never called him any- 

 thing else when they were alone — ''just where did 

 birds come from?" 



''That's rather a vague question," the other re- 

 plied; "suppose you put it a little more clearly." 



*'What I want to find out, sir," said the boy, 

 *'is, where and when the whole bird group first 

 appeared on the earth. There was a time, wasn 't 

 there, when there were no birds?" 



"Certainly." 



"And then there was a time when there were 

 birds?" 



"Yes." 



"If every form of life has developed from some 

 other form, then birds must have evolved from 

 something that lived on the earth before them. ' ' 



"Undoubtedly." 



"What was that something?" 



"Birds, as a class, developed from the class of 

 reptiles," the Feather Man answered. "That 

 doesn't mean that a Sparrow is descended from an 



