142 Our Bird Friends. 



The breast feathers of yoiino- Red Grouse are pointed, 

 whereas those of adidt birds are rounded. 



When a feather is youn,o- and growing, tlie qnill 

 is tilled with blood wherewith it is nourished and 

 strengthened: but as maturity a})|»roaches, the (juill 

 becomes dry and hollow and the completed feather 

 a much "deader" thing than a human hair. It is 

 deader because it has not the power to regrow any 

 part cut off, but is not (|uite lifeless because it 

 retains power to change colour, not by the loss of 

 anything, but by the addition of a tint. 



In order to show the diticrent characteristics of 

 birds' feathers. 1 have thought it well to have the 

 principal ones from the body of a Connnon (."urlew 

 photographed (p. 14.S). V'vz. 1 represents a wing 

 (piill, or flight feather: Fig. 2. an outer or upper 

 wing covert : Fig. :], an under wing covert : Fig. 4. a 

 feath(M- from the middle of the bird's back : Fig. o, 

 a tail (piill : Fig. (i, an under-part feather and its 

 after-shaft: Fig. 7. an upper tail covert; Fig. -s, an 

 under tail covert. 



The feathers on the upper parts of birds are 

 stronger, closer and darker in col(»ur, as a ride, than 

 those growing on their under parts: but, ciu'iousl}- 

 enough, this ride is revei'sed in regard to the 

 downy feathers underlying the i)ro[)er ones in the 

 case of the Curlew, the down being darker and 

 thicker on the mider parts than upon the upjier. 

 Nearly all feathers have soft, downy barbs or 

 branches, without booklets, near the bottom of the 



