78 The Bird 



around toward the breast-bone — hints of something 

 which perhaps has never occurred to us. We spoke of 

 the worm-Hke appearance of the lowly Amphioxus — 

 the sand-fish with the shadow of a back-bone. When we 

 think of a worm we think of a creature very much alike 

 from head to tail, one in which a section across the neck 

 is not ver}' unlike one across the centre of the body or 

 near the tail; indeed that is exactly what the word Am- 

 phioxus means, — like head, like tail. This repetition of 

 segments or similar parts is a sign of low degree in the 

 scale of life, as it harks back to the time when the very 

 highest form of life was worm-like. 



The flesh of a salmon or of a trout shows such a con- 

 dition very well, the body consisting of flake after flake 

 of flesh. Now in birds and the higher animals this divi- 

 sion into successive segments is hardly noticeable, and 

 almost every inch of a man or bird, from head to toe, 

 seems very distinct and individual. But ribs bring back 

 the old ancestral condition very vividly, and when a 

 peacock, strutting proudly before us, resplendent from 

 beak to tail, picks up and swallows an unfortunate angle- 

 worm, we ma}' remember that, no matter what geological 

 eras or inexplicable physical gulfs separate the two, the 

 bird carries within his body indelible imprints which 

 insolubly link his past with that of the lowly creature 

 of the dust. 



As in various other cases throughout nature, when the 

 man}^ ribs of the bird's ancestors began to be reduced in 

 number, some attained to other uses beside that of arch- 

 ing around the whole body and protecting the heart, the 



