Identifier: birditsformfunct07beeb (find matches)
Title: The bird, its form and function
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Beebe, William, 1877-1962
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: New York : Henry Holt
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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Fig. 7.—Skull of Phororhacos, drawn to scale with Fig. 8. 1/6 natural size. land; thousands revel in the luxuriance of reeking trop-ical jungles; a lesser number are as perfectly suited tothe blazing dust of the desert; and there are birds whichburrow deep into the very earth itself. Day and night;heat and cold; water, earth, and air, have all been con-quered by the thirteen or fourteen thousand species ofbirds which share the earth with us at the present day. These brethren of ours, whose clans have so bravelyconquered the dangers of millions of years, and at lasthave gained a foremost rank in the scale of living crea- Ancestors 17 tures, now find themselves face to face with the culmi-nating effort of Nature,—Mankind. They cannot escape
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 8.- -Seriema, a living descendant of Phororachos, with characters of Cranes,Bustards, and Eagles. 1/6 natural size. from us, though the least among them laughs to scornour efforts at following through the air. Yet all must 18 The Bird return sooner or later to earth for rest and food, and thusall are at our mercy. Let us beware of needlessly destroying even one ofthe lives—so sublimely crowning the ages upon ages ofevolving; and let us put forth all our efforts to save athreatened species from extinction; to give hearty aidto the last few individuals pitifully struggling to avoidabsolute annihilation. The beauty and genius of a work of art may be recon-ceived, though its first material expression be destroyed;a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer;but when the last individual of a race of living beingsbreathes no more, another heaven and another earthmust pass before such a one can be again.

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