134 SPECIES NOT 



is quite sufficient to protect it from its enemies; 

 and mark ! there is no act of flying, properly so- 

 called, performed by either the flying lemur, the 

 flying squirrel, or the flying fish. The function 

 is that of gliding through the air, which is done 

 in the fish by the aid of a developed pectoral 

 fin; in the lemur and squirrel by means of a 

 membrane between the fore legs and hind ones, 

 by which they can glide through the air, and 

 thus protected by design, escape from their ene- 

 mies. But the organs by which these gliding 

 motions are performed, are not even homologous 

 with the wings of the bird, and therefore not 

 even framed on the same type! Yet with this 

 knowledge Mr. Darwin argues, at page 182, that 

 "it is conceivable that flying fish, which now glide 

 through the air, slightly turning by* the aid of 

 their fluttering fins, might have been modified 

 into perfectly-winged animals." Unfortunately for 

 Mr. Darwin, man is a reasoning animal, and his 

 reason depends on his power of comparison. 

 Therefore, if he does not give us a wing with 

 which to compare his membrane in the fish or 

 squirrel, we cannot come to the same conclusion 

 as he does, that his fish could ever be converted 

 into a bird, much less into the more highly or- 

 ganized bat, with its warm blood, lungs, four- 

 partite heart, and viviparous re-production, all of 

 which changes must have been going on at the 

 same time as that in the fin ! The fact is, the 

 flying fish, squirrel, opposum, or lemur, never strike 

 the air with their membranous expansions. These 



