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On the Covering of Birds, considered chicjly with reference to 

 the Descrijition and Distinction of Species, Genera and Or' 

 ders. By Mr W. Macgillivhay, M. W. S., &c. Continued 

 from former Number, p. 263. 



-T EATHKRS, considered witli regard to their uses, may be dis- 

 tinguished into two kinds. Those which are more especially 

 employed as the medium of locomotion, are much stronger, 

 more compact, and more elongated than the others. Of this 

 kind is the row of feathers bordering the wing behind, and that 

 terminating the rump or tail. The names of quills, penna, 

 pennes, ought to be applied to these alike, although it is usually 

 confined to the former. The feathers which lie immediately over 

 the wing-quills, on both sides of the wing, partake in this respect 

 of the nature of the quills themselves ; but those which lie over 

 the tail-quills are seldom, if ever, of so dense a texture. The 

 rest of the feathers are not, in this most general sense, distin- 

 guished by any particular name in our language, although, by 

 ornithologists who write in Latin, they are termed plurncB, and 

 by the French plumes. The word plume, however, being with 

 us the poetical name for a feather, or being used to designate 

 such feathers as are applied to the decoration of hearses and 

 heads, it cannot well be proposed as an ornithological term. 



It has been mentioned that the accessory feather is always 

 downy, excepting in those birds in which its developement is equal 

 to that of the feather itself. It has also been remarked, that the 

 part of the webs nearest the tube is always of a looser texture 

 than the rest. In the feathers of many birds, the downy part 

 occupies by far the greater portion ; in some it is merely the tip 

 that is compact, while in others the loose part is limited to a very 

 small extent, and in others scarcely exists. As an example of 

 feathers all downy, may be mentioned the subcaudal feathers of 

 Pavo cristatus, and the abdominal feathers of Strix bubo, and 

 owls in general. The abdominal feathers of Falco albicilla, and 

 eagles in general, are nearly all of this loose texture. The gal- 

 linaceous birds have a very large proportion of down upon their 

 feathers, and the Columba? are the same in this respect. Of 

 such as have very Uttle down of this kind, may be mentioned 



