Book Progress #35

I don't have very much to say tonight; the drizzly, cold weather and a late-night math class have put me in a bit of a foul mood. I added a few more pages to the birds chapter today, although this also means I will have to do some heavy editing given that I am 22 pages in and haven't even gotten to Beebe's "Tetrapteryx" or Heilmann's Origin of Birds yet (much less Deinonychus, Sinosauropteryx, etc.).

I will share one amusing quote that may or may not make the final cut, however. It is from an article in Gentleman's Magazine by W.T. Freeman, in which the author preferred a "second creation" to evolution. On the origin of Archaeopteryx, the author offered the following speculation;

I suggest that in the earlier days there were ill-developed, low-typed, wallowing birds, also some highly developed reptiles. Perverted sexual instinct exists now, why not then, and as a result of this, why has not the archaeopteryx been an anomalous false hybrid that has been incapable, like other mongrels, of reproducing its kind?

Here is the latest Wordle for the chapter;

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For previous posts dealing with this project, see the "Books" and "Great Book Project" archives.