82 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



like the moas of New Zealand, which were 

 exterminated only a few hundred years ago, 

 so that we still find plenty of bones, and even 

 feathers and eggshells ; they had hairy-looking 

 plumage like the emu and cassowaries, which 

 are living now, and come next in size to the 

 ostrich. But there is no proof that any bird 

 ever lived, and was able to fly and at the same 

 time was as big even as Darwin's rhea of 

 Patagonia, which is smaller than the common 

 rhea of Argentina, and so ranks as the smallest 

 of our giant birds now living. 



And with our tame fowls and ducks, which 

 we know have descended from wild ancestors 

 which fly well, we see that the big fat breeds, 

 like Cochin-Chinas and Aylesbury ducks, have 

 wings much too small for them and cannot 

 fly, or only a very little, while the little bantams 

 and the dwarf ducks called call-ducks can 

 use their wings well, and have good-sized ones. 

 So we see that a bird's body is inclined to grow 

 too big for its wings, and if a bird once got 

 too big to have much fear of enemies on the 

 ground, it would not want to fly, and so it 

 would not matter to it if the wings were too 

 small to be of any use ; while it is quite possible 



