146 Our Bird Friends. 



with their quills hidden in a sparse bed ol very 

 soft down. The striking difference in the chara(3ter 

 of the breast feathers of the two species is well 

 shown in the illustration below. 



Use and disuse have also had a wonderful effect 



J!:iEAST l^iATHEUS (1) OF HKKUX, (2) OF GAXXET. 



ill the dc\XM)])niont of tail feathers. The larger 

 of the two in the illustration on the top of the 

 opposite page represents one of the pi'incipal tail 

 quills of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker. It has 

 a very powerful shaft, and the barbs at and near 

 the tip are almost as strong as bristles — just the 

 kind of feather to push down into the cracks and 

 crevices of the bark of some old tree and help 



