January 29th 2011    Tim Candler

    There are three theories.  The first describes the evolution of feathers as flight driven.  Little dinosaurs leaping from tree to tree finally manage flight.   The second theory argues that feathers emerged to keep those little dinosaurs that one day would fly from getting cold.  The third theory places the entire debate in the hands of God.

     Like so many things that can be seen everyday, plumage is up there with astonishing.  A Tufted Titmouse weighs about three quarters of an ounce.  And on my walk I can see them happy as flies in the branches of Maple Trees.

    Why have they not frozen to death, I ask myself.  And of the three theories I fall on the side of the second. 

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