EXTERIOR PARTS OF BIRDS 



i6: 



itedrices majores, Fig. ."JO, r/sc), are the first, outermost, longest row, 

 reaching nearest the tips of the flight-feathers ; they overlie the 

 bases of nearly all the remiges, excejiting the first nine or ten. The 

 median upper secondary coverts, shortly known as the " middle coverts " 

 (tecfrices medice), are a next row, shorter and therefore less exposed, 

 but still quite evidently forming a special series (Fig. 30, msc). It is a 

 common feature of these median coverts that they shingle over each 

 other contrariwise to the way the greater coverts are imbricated, the 

 outer vane of one being under the inner vane of the next outer one. 

 All the rest of the upper secondary coverts, forming several indis- 

 tinguishable rows, pass under the general name of lesser coverts 

 (tectrices minores ; Fig. .30, tx). The greater coverts furnish an excel- 



Fio. 30. ^Feathers (if a sparrow's wing ; nat. size. (Fur explanation see text.) 



lent zoological character ; for in no Passer es are they more than half 

 as long as the remiges they cover, while the reverse is the case in 

 most birds of lowei' orders. \Yoodpeckers, however, though non- 

 passerine, have quite short coverts. The imder coverts have the 

 same general arrangement as the upper ; but they are more alike 

 and less distinctly disposed in rows or series ; so that for practical 

 purposes they pass under the general name of inider wing-coverts, or 

 lining (if the wing. Since, when tlie wing is particularly marked on 

 the under side, it is the coverts and not the remiges that are highly 

 or variously coloured, the common expression " wing below," or 

 "under surface of the wing," refers to these coverts more pai'ticu- 

 larly. We should distinguish, hoAvever, from the under coverts in 



