. The bird. Birds. 74 THE POLE. costume of white and black, imagined them to be bands of children in white aprons ! The stiffness of their small arms—one can scarcely call them wings in these rudimentary birds—their awkwardness on land, their difficulty of movement, prove that they belong to the ocean, where they swim with wonderful ease, and which is their natural and legitimate element. One might speak of them as its emancipated eldest sons, as ambitious fishes, candidates for the char- acters of birds, which had abeady progressed so far as to transform their fins into scaly pinions. Tlie me
. The bird. Birds. 74 THE POLE. costume of white and black, imagined them to be bands of children in white aprons ! The stiffness of their small arms—one can scarcely call them wings in these rudimentary birds—their awkwardness on land, their difficulty of movement, prove that they belong to the ocean, where they swim with wonderful ease, and which is their natural and legitimate element. One might speak of them as its emancipated eldest sons, as ambitious fishes, candidates for the char- acters of birds, which had abeady progressed so far as to transform their fins into scaly pinions. Tlie metamorphosis was not attended with complete success; as birds powerless and clumsy, they remain skilful Or again, with their large feet attached so near to the body, with their neck short or poised on a gi-eat cylindrical trunk, with their flattened head, one might judge them to be near relations of their neighbours the seals, whose kmdly nature they possess, but not their intelligence. These eldest sons of nature, eye-witnesses of the ancient ages of transformation, appeared like so many strange hieroglyphics to those who first beheld them. With eyes mild, but sad and pale as the face of ocean, they seemed to regard man, the last-bom of the planet, from the depths of their Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Michelet, Jules, 1798-1874; Giacomelli, Hector, 1822-1904. London ; New York : T. Nelson
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Keywords: ., bookauthormich, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbirds
