y uniform in its organization.
So much is this the case, that the best mode of subdividing the class is a
problem of the greatest difficulty. Existing birds, however, present forms
which, though closely resembling in the greater part of their structure,
yet differ importantly the one from the other. One form is exemplified by
the ostrich, rhea, emeu, cassowary, apteryx, dinornis, &c. These are the
_struthious_ birds. All other existing birds belong to the second division,
and are called (from the keel on the breast-bone) _carinate_ birds.

Now birds and reptiles have such and so many points in common, that
Darwinians must regard the former as modified descendants of ancient
reptilian forms. But on Darwinian principles it is impossible that the
class of birds so uniform and homogeneous should have had a double
reptilian origin. If one set of birds sprang from one set of reptiles, and
another set of birds from another set of reptiles, the two sets could
never, by "Natural Selection" only, have grown into such a perfect
similarity. To admit such a phenomenon would be equivalent to abandoning
the theory of "Natural Selection" as the sole origin of species.

Now, until recently it has generally been supposed by evolutionists that
those ancient flying reptiles, the pterodactyles, or forms allied to them,
were the progenitors of the class of birds; and certain parts of their
structure especially support this view. Allusion is here made to the
bladebone (scapula), and the bone which passes down from the shoulder-joint
to the breast-bone (viz. the coracoid). These bones are such remarkable
anticipations of the same parts in ordinary (_i.e._ carinate) birds {71}
that it is hardly possible for a Darwinian not to regard the resemblance as
due to community of origin. This resemblance was carefully pointed out by
Professor Huxley in his "Hunterian Course" for 1867, when attention was
called to the existence in _Dimorphodon macronyx_ of even that small
process which in birds gives attachment to the upper end of the
merrythought. Also Mr. Seeley[53] has shown that in pterodactyles, as in
birds, the optic lobes of the brain were placed low down on each
side--"lateral and depressed." Nevertheless, the view has been put forward
and ably maintained by the same Professor,[54] as also by Professor Cope in
the United States, that the line of descent from reptiles to birds has not
been from ordinary reptiles, through pterodactyle-like forms,