Origin of Species Variorum

→ or some few 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

OMIT 1872

→ groups of species 1861 1866 1869

species 1859 1860

groups or species 1872

→ and consequently that the transitional forms would often long remain confined to some one region; but 1861 1866 1869 1872

but 1859 1860

→ adaptation had once 1861 1866 1869 1872

had 1859 1860

→ OMIT 1869 1872

be able to 1859 1860 1861 1866

required for the accumulation of each formation. These intervals will have given time for the multiplication of species from some one →or some few

parent-form:

parent-forms;

and in the succeeding

formation,

formation

such →groups of species will appear as if suddenly created.

I may here recall a remark formerly made,

namely

namely,

that it might require a long succession of ages to adapt an organism to some new and peculiar line of life, for

instance

instance,

to fly through the air; →and consequently that the transitional forms would often long remain confined to some one region; but

that

that,

when this →adaptation had once been effected, and a few species had thus acquired a great advantage over other organisms, a comparatively short time would be necessary to produce many divergent forms, which would →OMIT spread rapidly and widely throughout the world. Professor Pictet, in his excellent Review of this work, in commenting on early transitional forms, and taking birds as an illustration, cannot see how the successive modifications of the anterior limbs of a supposed prototype could possibly have been of any advantage. But look at the penguins of the Southern Ocean; have not these birds their front limbs in this precise intermediate state of

"neither

true arms nor true

wings"?

Yet these birds hold their place victoriously in the battle for life; for they exist in infinite numbers and of many kinds. I do not

sup- pose

suppose

that we here see the real transitional

grade

grades

through which the wings of birds have passed; but what special difficulty is there in believing that it might profit the modified descendants of the penguin, first to become enabled to flap along the surface of the sea like the logger-headed duck, and ultimately to rise from its surface and glide through the air?

I will now give a few examples to illustrate

these

the foregoing

remarks;

remarks,

and to show how liable we are to error in