CHAPTER III 
THE FRAMEWORK OF THE BIRD 
HEN we look at a living bird, we see only feathers, 
horn, and skin, and we sometimes forget that 
hidden beneath all these are many bones,—the 
framework of the body. If we wish to alter the style of 
architecture of a house, we need only to change the ex- 
terior, columns, arches and windows, while the stone 
foundation and brick walls may remain as they are. So 
in fashioning new forms of life, Nature has often altered 
the covering, and even the muscles and organs, of ani- 
mals to such an extent that we would have little clew 
as to the relations of these creatures, were it not for the 
underlying bones, which are so deeply seated that they 
react less slowly to changes in the outside life. If a fish, 
a lizard, a bird, a whale, and a man should be presented 
to us for classification, we might well hesitate until we 
had seen their bones, when there would flash upon us 
the same moulded type running through all. 
The study of the skeleton, or Osteology, is like all 
other ’ologies; it can be made as dry as the bones them- 
selves; or the very opposite, by leaving the minor details 
and less important particulars to text-books, choosing 
only the most significant facts. One may smile at the 
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