466 Bird -Lore 



JUNIOR AUDUBON WORK 



For Teachers and Pupils 



Exercise XXIV. Correlated Studies: Drawing and Reading. 

 Feathers, Part I 



During the year, we have briefly and very simply discussed the plan of a 

 bird, namely that of a highly developed flying-machine, and have sought to 

 gain a clearer conception of what this plan embraces. The wing, tail, and 

 skeleton of a bird have been emphasized because they differ in so great a degree 

 from similar structures in other vertebrates. In this exercise, let us learn a 

 few general facts about feathers, since feathers play an important part in the 

 very beautifully perfected mechanism of a bird's flight. 



The first fact to note and remember is that, when a feather is mentioned, it 

 is not necessary to state that a bird's feather is meant. No other animal or 

 organism of any kind whatever has feathers. The only place, therefore, where 

 one may look for feathers is on birds. This very simple fact is one of the strong- 

 est arguments for bird protection. It means that the supply of feathers is 

 limited to one group of living creatures, and that it is an impossibility to get 

 feathers in any way except from live birds. More than this, feathers form so 

 integral a part of the structure of birds that only in a few instances, as, for 

 example, in getting the plumes of the ostrich, can feathers be taken from live 

 birds without killing them. Even if a bird could live after losing its feathers, it 

 would be very helpless and unfit to get food for itself or to care for its young. 

 Nature alone knows how to change the feathers of birds each year without 

 injury. 



A strange fact, which is linked with this one, is that the only parts of a bird 

 that are dead are its feathers, scales and claws. A feather, like a scale, or a 

 beak or a claw or a nail, may be said to die as fast as it grows. A bird stripped 

 of its feathers is indeed a repulsive object until one knows what to look at and 

 study about it. Probably very few people would care much for bird-study if 

 birds had no feathers. Even their melodious songs would scarcely take the place 

 of their varied plumage. And yet feathers are structures that are dead by the 

 time they are grown, while the bones, muscles, nerves, organs of circulation, 

 digestion, reproduction, and sense are all living structures. 



We may think perhaps of feathers as the clothes of birds, in order to under- 

 stand somewhat better their use and durabihty. Let us suppose, for an instant, 

 that we had but one suit of clothes for all times of the year, that this suit was 

 not only water-proof, but heat- and cold-proof, and very nearly wind-proof, 

 and that it was so constructed that it renewed itself from year to year, pre- 

 senting a fresh, trim appearance. We may have read in fairy tales of such suits 

 and longed to possess one, especially that kind of a suit with the seven- 



