The Descent of Man

fore the others, we may conclude that all the
members of the vertebrate kingdom are derived
from some fishlike animal. The belief that
animals so distinct as a monkey, an elephant, a
humming-bird, a snake, a frog, and a fish, etc.,
could all have sprung from the same parents,
will appear monstrous to those who have not
attended to the recent progress of natural history.
For this belief implies the former existence
of links binding closely together all these forms,
now so utterly unlike.
Nevertheless, it is certain that groups of animals
have existed, or do now exist, which serve
to connect several of the great vertebrate classes
more or less closely. We have seen that the Ornithorhynchus
graduates towards reptiles; and
Prof. Huxley has discovered, and is confirmed
by Mr. Cope and others, that the Dinosaurians
are in many important characters intermediate
between certain reptiles and certain birds—the
birds referred to being the ostrich-tribe (itself