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Show Scientists Find Bird With Hands ! Swims, Climbs and Walks on Fours c- '- I The Hestiin olimblng a them tree, by using the hsnde on Its wings, besides be-sides its elsws, , the water, on ths forks or crossing of two branchea. The young birds live I on the sort leaflets of. these thorn trees. Not only do they resemble mammals by creeping about on all fours, ualng the wing tlpe aa forefeet, but the head and neck distinctly resemble some strange extinct reptile. The moet astonishing thing shout this remarkable bird, however, le that It dlvee and swims under wster like a reptile. Describing his attempt to capture a young Hoatxln for the New York Zoological society, Dr. Bee be ssys: The young Hoatxln stood erect for an inetant. then both wings wore stretched straight back, not folded, blrdwiae, but dangling looeely and reaching well beyond the body. For a considerable fraction of time he leaned forward. By 8peeial News Service. NEW YORK, June 1. Science has discovered a bird which walks on all fours with ths aid of hands on its wing tips; dives under water like a reptile, and is so little like any other bird It can scarcely fly at all! Dr. William Beebe, curator of birds st the Bronx soo and member of the New York Zoological society, haa sought eut and described thle most remarkable re-markable bird living on earth today. It ia called the "Uoataln," and its home Is in British Guiana, along a few tropical rivers. Dr. Beebe bellevea, this bird is a survival from dim, distant geologic ages, and that it la ths "missing link" which separatee reptile, bird and mammal. mam-mal. Protected by its strong body odor, which reeemblee musk, and by the bunduii pimpler, or thorn tree, upon which It feeds and whose t re- mendoua thorns "would defend a trench against the most courageous regiment aa Dr. Beebe declare, the Hoatxln haa defied the tide of evolution evolu-tion which baa swept away so many ancient forms of life. The Hoatxln. although unmistakably a bird. Is almost unable to fly. "Its flight resembles that f an overfed hen," says Dr. Beebe. At the end of Us wings are uifmla-takable uifmla-takable mittens or hands, with which it is able to grasp branches on which It makes Its home. 1 The neatn are Invariably built over "Then without apparent leap or Jump he dived atraight downward, aa beautifully as a seal. There wss a sera rely noticeable splash. "Here I wss In a modem boat with ths honk of . motor horns sounding from ths river road a few yards sway through the bushes. In the year 11(. and yet the curtain of the peat had been lifted and I had been permitted a glimpse of whst must hsvs been common com-mon In the millions of, years ago. "Then we shoved out the boat and watched from a distance. Five or six minutes passed snd s skinny, crooked, two-fingered mitten of sn arm reared upward out of the muddy flood and the nestling. Mack and fllstening, hauled Itself out of ths water. They muat the first amphibian have climbed out shaken the wster from its eyes and gasped In the thin air. , "But the young Hoatxln neither gasped nor shivered. There wae liot the allghtest doubt however, that this wss Its first introduction to water. Yet It had dived from a height of fifteen feet about fifty tlmna Ita own length, as cleanly aa a seal leans from s berg. It wss ss if a human child ahould dive 0 feet!" |