But after the feather was fully developed it opened up great
possibilities of a strong and light extension of the flapper, helpful
in running or useful in leaps from tree to tree. _Archæopteryx_,
another early bird, which is also figured in the _Outline_, has a sort
of bat-wing fore-limb with feathers instead of membrane. It was a
woodland creature, and flew as a flying fox or a flying lemur or even
a bat flies. All these facts are widely known, and all that trouble
about the half-leg, half-wing, dissolves before them. But consider
what a hash they make of Mr. Belloc’s argument, and how pitifully it
scurries off before them on its nondescript stumps of pretentious
half-knowledge, half-impudence! So much for zero the second.