OKNAMENTAL PLUMES 157 



singed off a fowl before cooking. Also beneath 

 the contours lie the so-called "downs." These 

 must not be confused with the commercial downs, 

 which consist generally of the normal feathers of 

 the 'breast. The body downs have no shaft and 

 are of no further importance here. 



It also is quite unnecessary to list all the gor- 

 geous colors and tints that are assumed by 

 feathers. They are to be found in a study of the 

 spectrum. 



While all feathers contain pigment, it does not 

 follow that all bright-colored feathers are filled 

 with brilliant pigment. On the contrary, dull- 

 pigmented feathers are sometimes of the most 

 vivid hue. The basic coloring matter does not 

 always show; for instance, the deep green of a 

 parrot may have gray or yellow as its foundation. 



There are three sources of feather coloring. 

 The first and most general is the direct transmis- 

 sion of hue from the pigment originally absorbed 

 by the young feather during its growth. In other 

 words, these feathers may be red, owing to red pig- 

 ment, or black because of black pigment. In this 

 list come reds, blacks, browns, -and some yel- 

 lows and oranges, but rarely green and never blue 

 or the metallic tints. These last are all chemically 

 composed and may be extracted by means of re- 

 agents. 



The next type of coloring arises from a combi- 

 nation of pigment with certain structural varia- 



