YOUNG BIRDS AND RECORDS OF THE PAST 131 



need of depositing it in some natural incubator, the 

 parent having become unable to undertake the duty. 



There are few instances in the history of animals where 

 the evidence gleaned from the present and the past can be 

 more completely combined to yield such definite results 

 as these phenomena in the history of nestling birds. The 

 foundation of our deductions rests on the evidence of the 

 fossil archasopteryx. If we take this as our basis, the whole 

 of the otherwise inexplicable facts become clear as day : 

 forming a demonstration of the evolution theory which 

 should convince the most sceptical. 



One is often asked, what evidence is there for the oft- 

 repeated assertion that the birds and reptiles are near 

 akin ? The two things seem so incongruous : the one all 

 activity, the other so sluggish and " cold-blooded." Yet 

 the fact of this relationship is incontrovertible, and great 

 as is the distance of time since the parting of the ways, 

 the evidences are yet so plain that he who runs may 

 read. But he must first learn to read. 



Briefly, the most striking part of this evidence is to be 

 gleaned from two sources — from the fossilised remains of 

 species which lived ages ago, and from the skeletons of 

 species yet with us ; and from the insight these aspects 

 afford us, we are enabled to link up yet other features 

 as a part of this history, which would otherwise prove 

 incapable of interpretation. But of this evidence we can, 

 in these pages, examine only that which is to be found in 

 young birds. 



One of the most interesting of these links with the past 

 has confronted most of us, all unwittingly, at our very 

 dinner-tables ! Nay, more — it may even have endangered 

 the lives of some of our forbears, who when dining off, 

 say, a roast fowl, enjoyed nothing so much as cleaning 



