1902 Feathers: Their Structure and Uses 175 



feathers themselves, and also as to how this alteration is 

 produced. This may happen by abrasion, — that is, the 

 wearing away of the barbulets or booklets of the barbs, — 

 and there are some who say that the colour pigment of 

 the feather itself changes. 



The young of a great many birds do not shed the quill- 

 feathers in the first year, nor do many seem to have a com- 

 plete moult during that period.^ 



Feathers do not grow all over the body of a bird, as every 

 one who has plucked a fowl will know ; but are found in 

 certain distinct tracts, the forms and peculiarities of which 

 are very different and characteristic of various birds. This, 

 however, does not apply to down. There are a few excep- 

 tions to this ; thus the ostrich, toucan, and penguin have 

 feathers growing all over their bodies. 



Having given an outline of the structure and modifications 

 of feathers, we will now endeavour to see some of the uses to 

 which feathers are put by the birds themselves. Every one 

 knows that a number of birds line their nests with feathers 

 from their own bodies, and the eider-duck practically builds 

 its entire nest of down from its own breast, which is of 

 considerable commercial value. To enumerate the great 

 number of cases of brilliancy in the plumage of the cock 

 birds, and their habit of "showing off" before the hens, 

 does not come within the scope of this paper. We may 

 mention, in passing, the peacock, pheasant, turkey, argus- 

 pheasant, and a whole host of Game Birds, whose habits of 

 flaunting their tails and "showing off" their plumage, by 

 strutting up and down before the hens, are too well known 

 to need description. The great bustard, which was once 

 common in parts of England, is a striking example, and if 

 anyone has seen the cock bird "showing off" before the 

 hens, as I have done, he will know what an extraordinary 

 and never-to-be-forgotten sight it is. Darwin's theory is 

 that the brightest coloured and best formed male birds of 



^ When the plumage of the two parent birds is different from one another, the 

 young birds resemble the mother, the exception to this being that when the hen 

 bird is more conspicuously coloured than the cock the young are coloured like 

 the latter. When the parents are alike in plumage the young are different from 

 them both. 



VOL. I. — NO. 3. M 



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