26 



The Bird 



or lengthened down, as gulls and ducks. A Red-winged 

 Blackbird, or for that matter almost any passerine nest- 

 ling, looks very odd when it rises up in the nest, gaping for 

 food; the long gray streamers of down waving like an 

 aureole around its head. In some water-birds this nest- 

 ling down retains its usefulness for nearly two months. 



Fig. lo. — Feather from the head of a young Bobolink, with down still attached 

 to its tip. Twice natural size. 



The feathers which replace the down are, when they 

 first appear above the skin, rolled tightly and bound up 

 in the thin tissue of the horn}^ sheaths, so that they 

 resemble a bundle of withes wrapped together in a cloth. 

 In many young birds the feathers remain in this condi- 

 tion until they are nearly full grown, and a 3'oung cuckoo 



