Origin of Species Variorum

Petrels are the most aërial and oceanic of birds, but in the quiet Sounds of Tierra del Fuego, the Puffinuria berardi, in its general habits, in its astonishing power of diving, its manner of swimming, and of flying when unwillingly it takes flight, would be mistaken by any one for an auk or a grebe; nevertheless, it is essentially a petrel, but with many parts of its organisation profoundly modified in relation to its new habits of life; whereas the woodpecker of La Plata has its structure only slightly modified. In the case of the water-ouzel, the acutest observer by examining its dead body would never have suspected its sub-aquatic habits; yet this anomalous member of the terrestrial thrush family wholly subsists by diving,—grasping the stones with its feet, and using its wings under water. All the members of the great order of Hymenoptera are terrestrial, excepting the genus Proctotrupes, which Sir John Lubbock has recently discovered to be aquatic in its habits; it often enters the water and dives about by the use not of its legs but of its wings, and remains as long as four hours beneath the surface; yet not the least modification in its structure can be detected in accordance with such abnormal habits. ↑

He who believes that each being has been created as