s true that when once an
animal has obtained powers of flight its means of diffusion are
indefinitely increased, and we might expect to find many relics of an
aerial form and few of its antecedent state--with nascent wings just
commencing their suspensory power. Yet had such a slow mode of origin, as
Darwinians contend for, operated exclusively in all cases, it is absolutely
incredible that birds, bats, and pterodactyles should have left the remains
they have, and yet not a single relic be preserved in any one instance{130}
of any of these different forms of wing in their incipient and relatively
imperfect functional condition!

[Illustration: WING-BONES OF PTERODACTYLE, BAT, AND BIRD.]

Whenever the remains of bats have been found they have presented the exact
type of existing forms, and there is as yet no indication of the conditions
of an incipient elevation from the ground.

The pterodactyles, again, though a numerous group, are all true and perfect
pterodactyles, though surely _some_ of the many incipient forms, which on
the Darwinian theory have existed, must have had a good chance of
preservation.

As to birds, the only notable instance in which discoveries recently made
appear to fill up an important hiatus, is the interpretation given by
Professor Huxley[127] to the remains of Dinosaurian reptiles, and which
were noticed in the third chapter of this work. The learned Professor has
(as also has Professor Cope in America) shown that in very important {131}
and significant points the skeletons of the Iguanodon and of its allies
approach very closely to that existing in the ostrich, emeu, rhea, &c. He
has given weighty reasons for thinking that the line of affinity between
birds and reptiles passes to the birds last named from the Dinosauria
rather than from the Pterodactyles, through Archeopteryx-like forms to the
ordinary birds. Finally, he has thrown out the suggestion that the
celebrated footsteps left by some extinct three-toed creatures on the very
ancient sandstone of Connecticut were made, not, as hitherto supposed, by
true birds, but by more or less ornithic reptiles. But even supposing all
that is asserted or inferred on this subject to be fully proved, it would
not approach to a demonstration of specific origin by _minute_
modification. And though it harmonizes well with "Natural Selection," it is
equally consistent with the rapid and sudden development of new specific
forms of life. Indeed, Professo