CHAPTER VIII 



THE COMING OF THE BIRDS 



We seem to have neglected the birds for a long time. 

 They had really appeared several million years before 

 the age we are now considering, and it may be sup- 

 posed that such highly organized creatures, living in 

 the free air, would have prospered and spread con- 

 siderably diiring those millions of years. As a matter 

 of fact, we find very few remains of birds in the rocks 

 which represent that very long period. If the living 

 things of that age are buried in anything like the 

 proportion in which they lived, there must have been 

 extremely few birds. 



A word of warning about these "fossil remains*' 

 may usefully be given here. Some people ask us 

 why, if the animals of the past are buried in our 

 rocks, we cannot find whole series of remains showing 

 the gradual transformation of, say, a reptile into 

 a bird or a mammal. Now, that is one of the 

 questions which ought not to be asked by any person 

 who makes a good use of his eyes. Just look round 

 a region that is teeming with animal life — say, a wood. 

 How many remains of those myriads of insects and 

 birds and other animals will there be left in a million 



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