30 



love's meinie. 



appearance was owing to a slight ruffling or disorder of 

 the filaments ; but it is entirely normal, and, I doubt not, 

 so constructed, in ord6r to ensure a redundance of ma- 

 terial in the plume, so that no accident or pressure from 

 wind may leave a gap anywhere. How this redundance 

 is obtained you will see in a moment by bending any fea- 

 ther the wrong way. Bend, for instance, this plume, b, 



'Fig. 2, into tlie reversed curve, a, Fig. 2 ; then all the 

 filaments of the plume become perfectly even, and there 

 are no waves at the edge. But let the plume return into 

 its proper form, b, and the tissue being now contracted in- 

 to a smaller space, the edge waves are formed in it 

 instantly. 



Hitherto, I have been speaking only of the filaments 

 arranged for the strength and continuity of the energetic 

 plume ; they are entirely different when they are set 



