wading-bird

Updated: April 30, 2025

It was taken from a quarry in an American valley, and is a piece of sandstone, which was once soft enough to receive the impress of the feet of the giant wading-bird, probably much larger than an ostrich, which once walked across it with long strides. You will also trace upon it the tracks of smaller birds.

Caroline Pridham - Twilight and Dawn: Simple Talks on the Six Days of Creation

But such slightly increased development of the legs is transmitted to the offspring of the bird, which in turn develops its already improved legs by its individual efforts, and transmits the improved tendency. Generation after generation this is repeated, until the sum of the infinitesimal variations, all in the same direction, results in the production of the long-legged wading-bird.

Theodore Graebner - Evolution: An Investigation and a Critique

They uttered outlandish calls and participated in numerous public assemblies that featured much noise but little action. Among other fowl I noted some sheathbills from the wading-bird family, the size of pigeons, white in color, the beak short and conical, the eyes framed by red circles.

Jules Verne - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

But such slightly increased development of the legs is transmitted to the off spring of the bird, which in turn develops its already improved legs by its individual efforts, and transmits the improved tendency. Generation after generation this is repeated, until the sum of the infinitesimal variations, all in the same direction, results in the production of the long-legged wading-bird.

Edward Huntington Williams - A History of Science — Volume 4