78 The Bird 



around toward the breast-bone — hints of something 

 wliich perhaps has never occurred to us. We spoke of 

 the worm-Hke appearance of the lowly Amphioxus — 

 the sand-fish with the shadow of a back-bone. When we 

 think of a worm we think of a creature very much alike 

 from head to tail, one in which a section across the neck 

 is not verv unlike one across the centre of the bodv or 

 near the tail; indeed that is exactlv what the word Am- 

 phioxus means, — like head, like tail. This repetition of 

 segments or similar parts is a sign of low^ degree in the 

 scale of life, as it harks back to the time when the veiy 

 highest form of life was worm-like. 



The flesh of a salmon or of a trout shows such a con- 

 dition very well, the bod}' consisting of flake after flake 

 of flesh. T\ow in birds and the higher animals this divi- 

 sion into successive segments is hardly noticeable, and 

 almost ever}^ inch of a man or bird, from head to toe, 

 -V^eems very distinct and individual. But ribs bring back 

 the old ancestral condition very vividly, and when a 

 peacock, strutting proudly before us, resplendent from 

 beak to tail, picks up and swallows an unfortunate angle- 

 worm, we may remember that, no matter what geological 

 eras or inexplicable physical gulfs separate the two, the 

 bird carries within his bod}' indelible imprints which 

 insolubly link his past with that of the lowdy creature 

 of the dust. 



As in various other cases throughout nature, when the 

 man}^ ribs of the bird's ancestors began to be reduced in 

 nimiber, some attained to other uses beside that of arch- 

 ing around the whole body and protecting the heart, the 



