passenger birds

52:1.5Early evo­lu­tion­ary man is not a col­or­ful crea­ture. In gen­eral, these prim­i­tive mor­tals are cave dwellers or cliff res­i­dents. They also build crude huts in the large trees. Be­fore they ac­quire a high or­der of in­tel­li­gence, the plan­ets are some­times over­run with the larger types of an­i­mals. But early in this era mor­tals learn to kin­dle and main­tain fire, and with the in­crease of in­ven­tive imag­i­na­tion and the im­prove­ment in tools, evolv­ing man soon van­quishes the larger and more un­wieldy an­i­mals. The early races also make ex­ten­sive use of the larger fly­ing an­i­mals. These enor­mous birds are able to carry one or two av­er­age-sized men for a non­stop flight of over five hun­dred miles. On some plan­ets these birds are of great ser­vice since they pos­sess a high or­der of in­tel­li­gence, of­ten be­ing able to speak many words of the lan­guages of the realm. These birds are most in­tel­li­gent, very obe­di­ent, and un­be­liev­ably af­fec­tion­ate. Such pas­sen­ger birds have been long ex­tinct on Uran­tia, but your early an­ces­tors en­joyed their ser­vices.

66:5.6It was in these days that car­rier pi­geons were first used, be­ing taken on long jour­neys for the pur­pose of send­ing mes­sages or calls for help. Bon’s group were suc­cess­ful in train­ing the great fan­dors as pas­sen­ger birds, but they be­came ex­tinct more than thirty thou­sand years ago.

61:1.945,000,000 years ago the con­ti­nen­tal back­bones were el­e­vated in as­so­ci­a­tion with a very gen­eral sink­ing of the coast lines. Mam­malian life was evolv­ing rapidly. A small rep­til­ian, egg-lay­ing type of mam­mal flour­ished, and the an­ces­tors of the later kan­ga­roos roamed Aus­tralia. Soon there were small horses, fleet-footed rhinoceroses, tapirs with pro­boscises, prim­i­tive pigs, squir­rels, lemurs, opos­sums, and sev­eral tribes of mon­key­like an­i­mals. They were all small, prim­i­tive, and best suited to liv­ing among the forests of the moun­tain re­gions. A large os­trich­like land bird de­vel­oped to a height of ten feet and laid an egg nine by thir­teen inches. These were the an­ces­tors of the later gi­gan­tic pas­sen­ger birds that were so highly in­tel­li­gent, and that one­time trans­ported hu­man be­ings through the air.

74:3.4The third day was de­voted to an in­spec­tion of the Gar­den. From the large pas­sen­ger birds—the fan­dors—Adam and Eve looked down upon the vast stretches of the Gar­den while be­ing car­ried through the air over this, the most beau­ti­ful spot on earth. This day of in­spec­tion ended with an enor­mous ban­quet in honor of all who had la­bored to cre­ate this gar­den of Edenic beauty and grandeur. And again, late into the night of their third day, the Son and his mate walked in the Gar­den and talked about the im­men­sity of their prob­lems.

74:4.4It was near the dawn of their sev­enth day on earth that Adam and Eve heard the startling news of the pro­posal of these well-mean­ing but mis­guided mor­tals; and then, even while the pas­sen­ger birds were swiftly wing­ing to bring them to the tem­ple, the mid­way­ers, be­ing able to do such things, trans­ported Adam and Eve to the Fa­ther’s tem­ple. It was early on the morn­ing of this sev­enth day and from the mount of their so re­cent re­cep­tion that Adam held forth in ex­pla­na­tion of the or­ders of di­vine son­ship and made clear to these earth minds that only the Fa­ther and those whom he des­ig­nates may be wor­shiped. Adam made it plain that he would ac­cept any honor and re­ceive all re­spect, but wor­ship never!