84 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



forget that groups of species may elsewhere have long 

 existed, and have slowly multiplied, before they invaded 

 the ancient archipelagoes of Europe and the United 

 States. We do not make due allowance for the intervals 

 of time which have elapsed between our consecutive 

 formations — longer perhaps in many cases than the time 

 required for the accumulation of each formation. These 

 intervals will have given time for the multiplication of 

 species from some one parent-form: and in the succeed- 

 ing formation such groups or species will appear as if 

 suddenly created. 



I may here recall a remark formerly made, namely, 

 that it might require a long succession of ages to adapt 

 an organism to some new and peculiar line of life, for 

 instance, to fly through the air: and consequently that 

 the transitional forms would often long remain confined 

 to some one region; but that, when this adaptation had 

 once been effected, and a few species had thus acquired 

 a great advantage over other organisms, a comparatively 

 short time would be necessary to produce many divergent 

 forms, which would spread rapidly and widely, throughout 

 the world. Professor Pictet, in his excellent Review of 

 this work, in commenting on early transitional forms, 

 and taking birds as an illustration, cannot see how the 

 successive modifications of the anterior limbs of a sup- 

 posed prototype could possibly have been of any advan- 

 tage. But look at the penguins of the Southern Ocean; 

 have not these birds their front limbs in this precise 

 intermediate state of "neither true arms nor true 

 wings"? Yet these birds hold their place victoriously 

 in the battle for life; for they exist in infinite numbers 

 and of many kinds. I do not suppose that we here see 



