The Framework of the Bird 69 
scales, two fingers of each hand were lost, and one from 
each foot; teeth disappeared; a beak of horn proved 
best; intelligence increased and the forehead rose high, 
and behold,—a bird! Can we then despise even an Eng- 
lish Sparrow? 
All these things we have learned from a comparison 
with creatures other than birds, and we may, without 
trouble, take one more glimpse into the dim past. Let 
us go to the hencoop, where for three days the patient 
biddy has been sitting on her precious eggs. We will 
Fia. 45.—Neck vertebre of an Ostrich, highly complex and bony in structure. 
rob her of one—she will not miss it—while from it we 
may learn many wonderful things. Rest the warm egg 
in a dish of sand, carefully picking away the shell from 
the upper part. A glance at the tiny embryo lying on 
the yolk within will show a double series of tiny squares 
extending down the long diameter of the body. These 
are the first hints of the spinal column, and if we could 
follow its further development we would see something 
of great interest. The squares are now divided up like 
beads, just as are the bones of our bird’s vertebre; but 
in reality this first segmentation is a false one. It is sim- 
