INTRODUCTION. 



Ample wings have tlie primaries short, and the 

 secondaries and tertiaries remarkably broad. The 

 flight of birds possessing wings of this description 

 is slow and heavy, but regular, lofty, and can be 

 long sustained. By this broad expanse of \^^ng the 

 Heron mounts high in the air, flying steadily, but 

 slowly, to its distant retreat. 



Aboetive wings are such as are incapable of being 

 used as instruments of flight. These are of two 

 kinds ; the first belongs to land birds of the Ostrich 

 race, the second to the Penguins, Auks, and other 

 swimming birds. 



The tail of a bird is a very important auxiliary in 

 flight, during which it is expanded, and used as a 

 rudder. There are very few species without this 



Fig. 



-TAIL-FEATHERS. 



Upper surface of the tail of a bird, 

 showing the disposition of the twelve 

 quill- feathers of which it is usually 

 composed. The feathers of the tail 

 are counted from the outer to the 

 inner ; consequently the first tail- 

 feather (1) is the most external, from 

 which they are named 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 

 and £th, to the 6tb, or middle feathers 

 of the tail (6). The feathers which 

 cover the roots of the tail-feathers 

 are the tail-coverts [t t). 



ornamental appendage, though in some it is ex- 

 tremely short. The terms short and long, however, 

 being very indefinite, it is usual, when speaking of 

 the comparative length of this part, to call that a 

 short tail which does not exceed half the lensth of 



