_e 
WING-COVERTS AND REMIGES. 33 
important as it is in a morphological point of view, it is taken into little 
account in practical ornithology, unless when largely modified in form, con- 
spicuous in color, or bearing special organs, as claws, spurs, etc. It 
strengthens, and defends, and adds to the symmetry of the anterior outer 
border of the wing. (The student must carefully distinguish the use of 
the word spurious in this connection from its application to a certain state 
of the first primary — see § 62.) 
§ 59. Tae Winc-coverts are conveniently divided into the wpper (tec- 
‘trices superiores) and under (tect. inferiores); they include all the small 
feathers that clothe the wings, extending a varying distance along the bases 
of the remiges (§60). The ordinary disposition and division of the upper 
coverts is as follows :— There is one set, rather long and stiffish, close-pressed 
over the bases of the outer nine or ten remiges, covering these, in general, 
about as far as their structure is plumulaceous. These spring from the hand 
or pinion (§ 55) and are the upper primary coverts (PI. 1. fig. 1, pe) : they 
are ordinarily the least conspicuous of any. All the rest of the upper coverts 
are SECONDARY, and spring mostly from the forearm; they are considered in 
three groups, or rows. The greater coverts (Pl. 1, fig. 1, gsc) are the first, 
outermost, longest row, covering the bases of most of the remiges except 
the first nine or ten; the median coverts (Pl. 1, fig. 1, msc), are a next 
row, shorter, but still almost always forming a conspicuous series. All the 
rest of the secondary coverts pass under the general name of lesser coverts 
(Pl. 1, fig. 1, dc). The greater coverts have furnished a very important z06- 
logical character: for in all Passeres they are not more than half as long as 
the remiges they cover, while the reverse is believed to be the case in nearly 
all other birds. The under coverts have the same general disposition as the 
upper: but they are all like each other, have less distinction into rows or 
series, and for practical purposes generally pass under the common name of 
under wing-coverts; and since, when the wing is strikingly colored under- 
neath, it is these feathers, and not the remiges, that are highly or variously 
tinted, the expression “ wing below,” or “under surface of the wing” gener- 
ally refers to them more particularly. We should distinguish, however, 
from the under wing-coverts in general, the awillary feathers, or axillars (i. 
axilla, arm-pit). These are the innermost of the under wing-coverts ; al- 
most always longer, stiffer, and otherwise distinguishable from the rest; in 
ducks, for example, and many waders, they take on remarkable development. 
§ 60. (a.) THe Remices (PI. 1, fig. 1, 6, s, and ¢) mainly give the size, 
shape, and general character to the wing, and are its most important fea- 
tures; they represent the whole of its posterior outline, most of its surface, 
and most of its outer and inner borders. Taken collectively, they form a 
flattened surface for striking the air; this surface may be quite flat, as in 
birds with long pointed wings that cut the air like oar-blades; generally it 
is a little concave underneath, and correspondingly convex above; this con- 
cavo-convexity varying insensibly within certain limits. It is usually great- 
est in birds with a short rounded wing, as in the gallinaceous order. Two 
KEY TO N. A. BIRDS. 5 
