174 Scientific Sophisms. 



air." 1 "We do not see the transitional grade 

 through which the wings of birds have passed ; 

 but what special difficulty is tliere in believing 

 that it might profit the modified descendants of 

 the penguin, first to become enabled to flap 

 along the surface of the sea, like the logger- 

 headed duck, and ultimately to rise from its 

 surface and glide through the air ? " * " The 

 tail of the giraffe looks like an artificially con- 

 structed fly-flapper ; and it seems at first in- 

 credible that this should have been adapted for 

 its present purpose by successive slight modifi- 

 cations, each better and better, for so trifling 

 an object as driving away flies ; yet we should 

 pause before being too positive even in this 

 case, for ... a well-developed tail having 

 been formed in an aquatic animal, it might sub- 

 sequently come to be worked in for all sorts of 

 purposes as a fly-flapper, an organ of prehen- 

 sion, or as aid in turning, as with the dog." 8 



In this way, the tail of a horse may have 

 been derived from that of a shark, the tail of a 

 cow from the skate, and the giraffe owe his fly- 

 flapper to a remote progenitor, the sturgeon. 

 Or, if there be any who think that to affirm this 



1 " Origin of Species," First Edition, p. 328. 



* Ibid., p. 329. 



Ibid., p. 215. 



