FEATHERS AND FLIGHT. 



IF you were swimming, would you spread your fingers 

 apart or close them ? When you have answered 

 this question and thought a little about your reasons, 

 you will understand more easily what I am going to 

 tell you about a bird's feather. The air through which 

 the bird makes its way must 

 be swept aside, just as the 

 water is swept by your closed 

 fingers or by the blade of an 

 oar. If the air could blow 

 through between the wing 

 feathers, the bird could not 

 get ahead. 



Look now at the strong feather in Fig. 32, or, 

 better still, examine a feather itself. You see a shaft 

 running the length of the feather, and from it runs a 

 long row of barbs, as they are called — short, stout 

 ones from the outer side of the shaft, longer, more 

 slender ones from the inner side. Try to separate 

 two of these barbs by stretching out the whole row. 

 Do you see how they hold together ? When you have 

 finally pulled two of them apart, pass the forward one 

 — the one nearer the tip of the feather — under the 



Fig. 31. — Contour Feather. 



