Mmi m the Light of Evoltttiofi 



judge by what we can see. Later forms have 

 not arrived to tell us the answer to our riddle. 

 The reptile seems the most promising form. But 

 the bird fulfills certain conditions better. The 

 whole process of evolution up to this time has 

 tended to the production of muscular forms of 

 swift locomotion. The bird is a high-pressure 

 engine of hot blood and marvelous swiftness, 

 of keen sense organs, and no mean brain. The 

 bird is a far higher and finer form than the rep- 

 tile. What chance has the plodding mammal 

 about as large and as dangerous as a rat or a 

 rabbit? 



We are in tertiary or cenozoic time. The great 

 reptiles have disappeared, only the inferior have 

 survived. Birds, like precocious children, have 

 not fulfilled the promise of their youth. The 

 prize will surely fall to some mammal. There 

 are splendid carnivora, cats or tigers, with pow- 

 erful bodies and long saber-like eye-teeth. The 

 herbivorous horses and deer have developed 

 long slim legs, and seek safety in flight. The 

 rodents, our rats, rabbits, and squirrels, have 

 taken refuge in holes or have gone into the 

 trees. In the trees we see also lemurs, halfway 

 between a squirrel and a monkey in appearance. 



98 



