156 ELEMENTS OF ORNITHOLOGY, 
Primaries.—This term is applied to denote those remiges 
which are inserted into the pinion (not, of course, into the 
pollex), and the length of the wing is often defined by the 
length from the base (or proawimal end) of the pinion to the 
apex (or distal end) of the longest feather it bears. These 
feathers are the stiffest and strongest of all, and there are 
almost always nine or ten of them. If the first, or outermost, 
is very short, it is often called a bastard or spurious primary, 
as, é g., in the Thrush. The tip of the longest primary 
constitutes the point of the wing. : 
Secondaries—The feathers thus named are those which 
spring from the arm. They vary greatly innumber and in size. 
They may be extremely short, as in the Swift, or extremely 
long, as in the Argus Pheasant. There may be only six of 
them, or their number may exceed forty. It is very often easy 
to distinguish the secondaries from the primaries by their being 
less stiff and by a slight difference in their inclination. 
Such feathers as may arise from the upper-arm bone used 
to be called Tertiaries or Tertials. But now all the remiges 
which are not primaries are termed “ secondaries,” the inner 
ones being distinguished as innermost secondaries. ‘These latter 
are generally few in number and inconspicuous, but may be elon- 
gated and conspicuous, as in the Lark or the Woodcock. They 
are often useful in defining some genera of birds, as they 
frequently differ in colour from the other secondaries, and 
sometimes partake of the tints of the greater coverts. 
Scapulars (fig. 144, 19) are sometimes confounded with 
imnermost secondaries, but the latter belong to the series of 
“remiges,” while the former pertain to the series of feathers 
implanted in what is called the humeral pteryla *. 
Wing-coverts.—The coverts—tectrices—or covering feathers of 
the wing, differ from ‘tail-coverts ” in that they strengthen 
the quills. They are, however, like tail-coverts in that they 
are divided into an upper series (superiores) and an under one 
(¢nferiores), and, as has been said, they cover over and protect 
and strengthen the quills and base of the “ remiges.” 
Tectrices superiores.—These are the more important, and they 
are much more complex than those of the tail, as might be 
expected from the greater complexity of the parts they cover. 
* See below, p. 165, fig. 147, 2. 
