Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson

“ It is only the fish that lay their eggs in the tops of water weeds that are bright enough to guard them. So it will be interesting for you to find, by noticing and inquiring, whether birds that build their nests on the ground are as bright as those that build in bushes or trees. More kinds of enemies get at a nest on the ground. The brighter bird as a rule chooses the better place. But you must not expect to find all birds of the trees wiser than all birds of the ground ”

“ And there are fish that fly, just as there are birds that swim. Flying fishes are found in all the warmer waters of the world. It is in the warm countries that many queer animals, that are part one thing and part like another, are found. You know a fish has a pair of fins that he wears on each side of his back in the same place thatthe bird wears his wings. The back fins of the flying fish are much longer than those of the ordinary fish, with long ribs like a bat's wings. ”

“ As a frog seems to loan his webbed feet to the swimming birds, because he tried them first and found them "handy" for paddles or oars, so fish seem to have been the inventor of wings. Later, other animals adopted the wing idea, flying frogs, flying bats, flying birds, flying squirrels. The flying frog is found in one of these warm places of the earth—the East Indies. He has much larger feet than our frogs have, and he uses the webs between his toes to help hold himself in the air as he leaps from tree to tree; for he's a tree-frog. ”

“ While the bird, both in form and action, is related to the fish and the crawfish on one side by his scales, his wings—which are only flying fins—and his tail, we will find that in these and other ways he is related to all four-footed things—and to two-footed and two-armed creatures. ”

“ You will notice that a bird spreads his tail much wider when he comes to light than he does when he is flying. Also notice that he curves upward, much as the crawfish does when he swims backward. See how his tail used in this way checks his flight? ”

“ But they are not the only animals that do them. As you know they are not the only animals that lay eggs either. Fish and frogs and snakes lay eggs also. Some fish build nests. Many migrate—going from one part of the water world to another, in the spring or early summer, to lay their eggs.
The fish not only foretells the birds in these habits, but even in their differences in these habits. For, curiously enough, they have different ideas about where to build their nests, just as birds do. ”

“ There are seven bones in your ankle, too; but in the bird some of these bones have disappeared and some have grown together, because the bird doesn't use his feet enough to make so many bones necessary. ”

“ If you had to keep your ankle still for a long time, say in a plaster cast, the bones would grow together, and doctors are very careful to see that joints are exercised just as soon as possible, in such cases. ”