1 66 GENERAL ORNITHOLOGY part ii 



more parallel-sided, especially those of the secondaiy and tertiary 

 series. Either or both webs may be incised toward the end \ that 

 is, more or less abruptly narrowed ; this is called emargination ; 

 their ends may be transversely or obliquely truncate, or nicked 

 in various ways. In a few birds, apparently for purposes of 

 sexual ornamentation, they are developed in bizarre shapes of 

 beauty, with evident decrease of utility as flight-feathers. Those 

 of the ostrich and penguin tribes share the peculiarities of the 

 general plumage of these extraordinary birds. Remiges are divided 

 into three classes or series, according to where they grow upon the 

 limb, whether upon the hand, the forearm, or the upper arm. In 

 this distinction is involved one of the most important considerations 

 of practical ornithology, of which the student must make himself 

 master. The three classes of quill-feathers are : 1 , the primaries ; 

 2, the secondaries ; 3, the tertiaries. 



The Primaries (Fig. 30, h) are those remiges which grow upon 

 the pinion, or wrist-, hand-, and finger-bones collectively (Fig. 27, C 

 to D). Whatever the total number of the remiges may be, in nearly 

 all birds loith true remiges the Primaries are either nine or ten in 

 number. The humming-bird Avith sixteen remiges, the albatross 

 with fifty or more, each has ten primaries. The grebes and a 

 few other birds are said to have eleven primaries : if this be so, it 

 is highly exceptional. No instance of a higher number than this 

 is known to me. Again, it is only among the highest Passeres that 

 the number nine is found, the Oscines having indifferently nine or 

 ten. In a good many Oscines, rated as nine-primaried, there are 

 actually ten, though the outermost is so rudimentary, and even out 

 of alignment with the developed primaries, that it is not counted 

 as one of them. Among Oscines, just this difference of one evident 

 and unquestionable primary more or fewer forms one of the best 

 distinctions between the families of that suborder. So the tenth 

 feather in a bird's wing, counting from the outside, becomes a 

 crucial test in many cases ; for, if it be last primary, the bird is 

 one thing ; if it be first secondary, the bird is another. In such 

 cases the necessity, therefore, of determining exactly which it is 

 becomes evident. Of course it is always possible to settle the 

 question by striking at the roots of the remiges and seeing how 

 many are seated on the pinion ; but this generally involves some 

 defacing of the specimen, and there is usually an easier way of 

 determining. Hold the wing half-spread ; then, in most Oscines, 

 the primaries come sloping down on one side, and the secondaries 

 similarly on the other, to form where they meet a reentrant angle 

 in the general contour of the posterior border of the wing ; the 

 feather that occupies this notch is the one we are after, and 

 unluckily it is sometimes last primary, sometimes first secondary. 



