OR, A TREATISE ON PILE. 11 



These discrepancies being once clearly pointed out, no one need be at a loss to decide 

 upon all the cases above mentioned. 



TJJE TEGUMENTARY APPENDAGES OF THE OSTRICH ARE FEATHERS. (See fig. 4, and 

 compare it with 1 and 3.) 



1. The inferior extremity is cylindrical, and has no button. 



2. The stalk has a smooth surface, no scales, but a beard and a steno-beard on a part 

 of it.* 



OF THE DOWN OF YOUNG BIRDS. We examined the down plucked from a chicken, 

 immediately after it emerged from the egg, and some taken on four succeeding days; and 

 discovered no change take place, except an enlargement of the parts. They all have a 

 minute cylindrical termination, which is transparent, and an inferior navel, but no button ; 

 and, issuing from the shaft, is a beard and steno-beard. 



We have also examined the eider-down, and find it to be feathers. 



THE EYE-LASHES OF THE OSTRICH. (See fig. 5.) We have examined the eye-lashes of 

 both the American and African Ostrich, and find them to be feathers. The length of one 

 of these is - of an inch, the length of the cylinder being --$, and the width - 9 %. From 

 the termination of the cylinder to that of the most distant beard, f f . On the lower half 

 of this shaft are five long beards, then three short ones ; which are succeeded by two long 

 and two short ones. 



OF THE TURKEY'S BEARD, AND OF WHALEBONE. There is a tuft of dark-colored, angu- 

 lar fibres, pending from the neck of the turkey, (Meleagris gallopavo,) which is generally 

 denominated his "beard." We submitted one inch of a fibre of it, of the width of gig-th 

 of an inch, to the trichometer; with 470 grains, it stretched ^ths of an inch; but as it 

 was originally xindulated, this elongation may have been caused by the act of straightening. 

 From that weight to 2100 grains, gradually and increasingly applied, it showed no duc- 

 tility whatever; and it finally parted with the last mentioned weight. We therefore 

 determined, inasmuch as ductility is one of the inseparable properties of pile, that this 

 is not hair. 



There is also a fibrous, horny substance, with which the mouth of the whale, (Balaena 



* But it differs from ordinary feathers in these particulars: 1st. It is smaller in proportion. 2d. The cylindrical form is 

 less perfect. 3d. It terminates in a single flat projection. 4th. Both the faces of the stalk are convex no canal in either. 

 5th. The stalk is partly naked and partly invested with a beard and a steno-beard. 



A transverse section of one, from the S. casuarius, exhibits, under the microscope, 1st, a black exterior; 2d, a white 

 intermediate, and 3d, a central porous matter. One inch of the same, 



with 1,770 grains, stretched ^ of an inch, elasticity entire. 

 " 4,766 " " ^ " " " 



" 5,566 " " Jy " " " 



" 5,866 " " T 4 ff " minus ^ 



" 10,758 " broke. 



