File:The British bird book (1921) (14569145187).jpg

Identifier: cu31924022566420 (find matches)
Title: The British bird book
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Wood, Theodore, 1862- Pycraft, W. P., (William Plane), b. 1868 Green, Roland, 1895-
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: London : A. & C. Black
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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d. Another remarkable flightless bird is the penguin. Herethe wing has changed its form to assume that of a paddle;superficially identical with that of the whale, or the turtle, orthat of the extinct sea-dragon ichthyosaurus. These paddleshave been re-modelled, so to speak, to enable them to beused for what we may caU flight under water. Most birdswhich swim under water use the legs for propelling the body ;but the penguin uses his paddles instead. The paddle ofthe turtle has similarly evolved out of a fore-leg used forwalking on land. The common tortoise may be taken asthe type of this leg. In the river and pond tortoises thestumpy foot of the land-tortoise gives place to a broad,webbed foot. In the turtles this webbed foot gives placeto the paddle. After what has been said about the penguin it is instruc-tive to turn to the wings of the auk tribe—the guillemot,razor-bill, and pufiin. These are very efficient for normalflight, but they are equally efiicient for use under water. 266
Text Appearing After Image:
CassowaryOstrich PenguinKiwi For these birds swim as penguins do, when submerged. Why,then, did the penguin suffer the loss of the use of his wingsfor flight ? This question leads to another. Why did that giantrazor-bUl known as the great auk become flightless ? Itwould seem that its wings somehow failed to keep pace withthe growth of its body, so that while they remained sufficientfor flight under water, they became useless for flight in theair. Its failure in this led to its extinction, for it was unableto escape from its arch-enemy, man. When the old-timesailors, somewhere about one hundred years ago, discoveredits haunts in Iceland could be profitably invaded for thepurpose of collecting feathers, and bait, they speedily wipedout the race ; for being flightless they were unable to escapethe marauders once they had effected a landing. Unhappilythere was no Bird Protection Society in those days to stopthis senseless slaughter. Here our survey of Birds on the Wing ends. It beganwith

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