296 THE AMERICAN SWAN. 



choose its own clothing according to location and circum- 

 stances. Birds are clad with feathers, an integument 

 altogether peculiar to them as a class. Concerning these 

 feathers, constituting what we call plumage, Paley, in his 

 great work on Natural Theology, has well said: "The 

 covering of birds cannot escape the most vulgar observa- 

 tion. Its lightness, its smoothness, its warmth — the dis- 

 position of the feathers, all inclined backward, the 

 down about their stem, the overlapping of their tips, 

 their different configuration in different parts, not to 

 mention the variety of their colors, constitute a vest- 

 ment for the body, so beautiful, and so appropriate to 

 the life which the animal is to lead, that, I think, we 

 should have had no conception of anything equally perfect, 

 if we had never seen it, or can now imagine anything more 

 so." Feathers are varied in adaptation to the different 

 parts of the bird. There are the ordinary feathers for cov- 

 ering called "clothing feathers," then others particularly 

 modified for special uses — those over the opening of the 

 ear are very light and open, and are called "auriculars;" 

 those covering the junction of the wing with the body are 

 called "scapulars;" those lying in several rows at the base 

 of the quills on the outside of the wing, "coverts;" the 

 large quill-feathers of the wing are called ^^ remtges,'' or 

 "rowing feathers;" of these again, the larger ones, arising 

 from the hand bones, are called "primaries;" those on the 

 lower or distal end of the ulna, or arm-bone, "secondaries;" 

 those from the upper or proximal part of the same bone, 

 " tertiaries," while the large steering-feathers of the tail are 

 called "rectrices." Indeed, on every part of the body 

 the feathers are peculiarly modified according to their 

 location, and yet every feather is constructed essentially 

 on the same plan. There is, first, the quill, entering 



