CHAPTER II 
The First Bird. 
““ And let Fowl fly above the earth; with wings 
Displayed in the open firmanent of heaven.’’—Milton. 
The ancestors of birds—The first known bird and its many remarkable features 
—tThe gradual evolution of the birds of to-day. 
OONER or later all bird-lovers find themselves pondering 
S over the problem of the origin of birds: how they evolved 
their peculiar covering of feathers: what was the fashion of 
the original arm and hand out of which the wing was fashioned : 
and finally, whence have the birds been derived ? 
Since these pages are avowedly devoted to the subject of 
Flight, any attempt to summarize the state of our knowledge on 
these aspects of the history of birds would be in the nature of a 
trespass on the space, of necessity limited, which even a cursory 
survey of flight demands. 
Let it suffice, then, to say, that birds are descended from 
reptiles. The skeleton of modern birds bears undubitable testi- 
mony of this. For we have the evidence furnished us by the 
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