DOWNY COVERING. 329 



clothed in down. This is the first covering of the 

 body, and it is only a partial and a temporary one. 

 The down consists of very fine filaments, which 

 are wrapped together in bundles, and at first en- 

 veloped in a membranous sheath. This crumbles 

 away after being exposed to the atmosphere, and 

 the characteristic appearance of the downy cover- 

 ing is then assumed. The bundles of down are 

 succeeded by the true feathers, which they guide, 

 as it were, through the skin. 



The appearance of the downy covering of the 

 young of different birds varies greatly, not only 

 from that which they assume in the adult state, 

 but from the aspect of other young birds of the 

 same age with themselves, but of different species. 

 Some are entirely enveloped in down, thick 

 and warm, while others are barely clad, a few 

 filaments alone appearing through the tender and 

 delicate skin which covers their bodies. To the 

 plunderer of birds' nests no fact is more familiar 

 than this ; and if he be also a lover of the farm- 

 yard, it cannot fail to have been observed by him, 

 that while many of the tenants of the hedges, or 

 breezy hill-sides, are poorly covered, the duckling, 

 chicken, guinea-chick, and others, are dressed in 



