Genre:

Illustration, Satire

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

D M *

Subjects:

Aeronautics, Breeding, Human Development, Evolution, Darwinism, Invention

    The upper half of the illustration depicts a fashionable man and woman riding giant birds of prey. The caption suggests that, like horses, birds could be made useful to man by 'selection, climate, training'. The lower part of the illustration depicts three ways of achieving human flight. The first involves wearing an india-rubber coat which, when inflated with gas, enables the subject to levitate. The second involves flying on a cape towed by pigeons and a hawk. The third suggestion is to wear a tail coat then stand on a roof while waving one's arms about for 'a few generations', and expect, 'by an extension of Charles Darwin's theory', to develop wings, a beak, a tail, and clawed feet.