PEDIGREES— THE FOUNDERS OF THE HOUSE. 235 



Our *' Story" is now told. We hope that 

 those who have followed it carefully will close 

 this little book with a feeling of satisfaction. 



In conclusion we would remark that it may 

 seem to many that the bird's wing has come 

 very prominently and frequently to the front 

 in these pages. This is as it should be. It is 

 the standard by which we can best measure the 

 rate of progress or decay, which a species, or a 

 race, as the case may be, has undergone. From 

 the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail, a bird is 

 essentially a flying animal. Whatever progress 

 it has made in development, has been in the first 

 instance to this end. Whatever evidence of 

 decay any given form may bear witness to, is 

 traceable to ihe loss of flight, the jjreatest of its 

 possessions : and the date of its fall is approxi- 

 mately to be gauged by the amount of degenera- 

 tion which the wing has undergone. It is the 

 pulse of its life-history. 



