v CHANGE FROM A REPTILE TO A BIRD 59 
but by no means entirely, like that of a man who, know- 
ing nothing of the facts of English history, should 
attempt to infer them from the character and peculiar- 
ities of our existing institutions. Many and ludicrous 
would be his errors. The evolutionist is saved from 
many mistakes by the geological record, which, how- 
ever fragmentary, is a safe guide as far as it goes. 
And if Sir Richard Owen, when presented with a 
single bone from New Zealand, was able to some 
extent to describe the giant bird of which it had 
oncé formed part, is it not possible that, by the help 
of animals, fossil or still existing, evolutionists have 
drawn a picture of the primitive ancestors of our 
present species that is at any rate not far removed 
from the truth? 
BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT. 
Darwin’s Origin of Species. 
Wallace’s Darwinism. 
Weissmann’s Essays cn Heredity, and Romancs Lecture. 
Miss Buckley’s Winners tn Life’s Race. 
(The literature of the subject is endless.). 
