1 8 SMALL WINGED BIRDS. 



organisation of the tadpole is necessarily accom- 

 panied by others — originating certainly not by chance, 

 but by design. 



The large and heavy birds of oceanic islands, says 

 Mr. Darwin, have wings so rudimentary that they 

 are incapable of flight ; and this he explains by 

 supposing that the progenitors of those birds not 

 having been exposed to the attacks of beasts of prey, 

 were not necessitated to fly, so that their wings came 

 at last by this disuse in the course of generations so 

 reduced in size as to be unfit for flight. On this I 

 would observe, that though not necessitated to fly to 

 escape the attacks of beasts of prey, the birds, 

 supposing they had ever been capable of flight, would 

 have been necessitated to exercise that faculty in 

 looking out for food. The power of using their 

 wings would not, therefore, be likely to have come to 

 be lost. 



But, let me ask, why suppose those wing-powerless 

 birds to have been descendants of birds with well 

 developed wings ? Would it not be easier, according 

 to the principles of the Evolution doctrine, to suppose 

 — if we must suppose anything — that the first evolved 

 birds possessed mere rudiments of wings, and that 

 the birds of oceanic islands were descended from them 

 without increased development of wing. 



That organs have become rudimentary by 

 degeneration from parent to offspring in the manner 

 Mr. Darwin here assumes, appears to me quite a 

 fancy. There is no proof whatever — no reason of 



