The Bird Does Not Ordinarily Require
Great Powers Of Flight, Since It Lives In The Forest, Feeds On
Fallen Fruits,
And roosts in low trees like other ground pigeons.
The majority of the individuals, therefore, can never make full
use
Of their enormously powerful wings, till the exceptional case
occurs of an individual being blown out to sea, or driven to
emigrate by the incursion of some carnivorous animal, or the
pressure of scarcity of food. A modification exactly opposite to
that which produced the wingless birds (the Apteryx, Cassowary,
and Dodo), appears to have here taken place; and it is curious
that in both cases an insular habitat should have been the moving
cause. The explanation is probably the same as that applied by
Mr. Darwin to the case of the Madeira beetles, many of which are
wingless, while some of the winged ones have the wings better
developed than the same species on the continent. It was
advantageous to these insects either never to fly at all, and
thus not run the risk of being blown out to sea, or to fly so
well as to he able either to return to land, or to migrate safely
to the continent. Pad flying was worse than not flying at all.
So, while in such islands as New Zealand and Mauritius far from
all land, it vas safer for a ground-feeding bird not to fly at
all, and the short-winged individuals continually surviving,
prepared the way for a wingless group of birds; in a vast
Archipelago thickly strewn with islands and islets it was
advantageous to be able occasionally to migrate, arid thus the
long and strong-winged varieties maintained their existence
longest, and ultimately supplanted all others, and spread the
race over the whole Archipelago.
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