366 



Bulletin 258. 



PART I. SEQUENCE IN PLUMAGE OF THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



Before undertaking to solve the problem of how to force fowls to molt, 

 it is important to know the nature of the feathers and how they develop. 



Where the first chick feathers come from. 

 "While the first body-covering of a chick may or may not be called 

 plumage, it is shed and replaced as if it were plumage. The method of 



Fig. I. — Pin-feathers on the wing of a White Leghorn chick 

 just from the shell. Notice the down tips clinging to the end 

 of the pin-feathers. 



molting, however, is peculiar to the downy coat. The baby chick (in 

 this case a Leghorn) when it comes from the shell, has pin-feathers for 

 flights (Fig. i). In two or three days it develops pin-feathers that 



