| → or were unknown, 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| OMIT 1872 |
|
| → have resulted from 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| be the result of 1872 |
|
| → at least, to show what diversified means of transition are 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| to show what diversified means of transition are at least 1872 |
|
|
If about a dozen genera of birds
become
→or were unknown,
who would have ventured to
that birds might have existed which used their wings solely as flappers, like the logger-headed duck (Micropterus of Eyton); as fins in the water and
on the land, like the penguin; as sails, like the ostrich; and functionally for no purpose, like the
Yet the structure of each of these birds is good for it, under the conditions of life to which it is exposed, for each has to live by a struggle; but it is not necessarily the best possible under all possible conditions. It must not be inferred from these remarks that any of the grades of wing-structure here alluded to, which perhaps may all
→have resulted from
disuse, indicate the
steps by which birds
acquired their perfect power of flight; but they
→at least, to show what diversified means of transition are
possible. |
|
| Seeing that a few members of such water-breathing classes as the Crustacea and Mollusca are adapted to live on the
and seeing that we have flying birds and mammals, flying insects of the most diversified types, and formerly had flying reptiles, it is conceivable that flying-fish, which now glide far through the air, slightly rising and turning by the aid of their fluttering fins, might have been modified into perfectly winged animals. If this had been effected, who would have ever imagined that in an early transitional state they had been
of the open ocean, and had used their incipient organs of flight exclusively, as far as we know, to escape being devoured by other fish? |
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| When we see any structure highly perfected for any particular habit, as the wings of a bird for flight, we should bear in mind that animals displaying early
|
