PLYMOUTH ROCK STANDARD AND BREED BOOK 110 



and back seem to merge together, a necessary feature at a vital 

 point in a beautiful top contour. 



Wings. The most common fault at the present time in this 

 section is deformed feathers. While this deformity usually takes 

 the form of twisted feathers, other defects such as these are not 

 as unsightly, as the twisted feather or feathers nearly always 

 protrudes more or less. Often several feathers are twisted as 

 shown by illustration in Plate 8, Figure 2. 



Twisted wings take on several peculiar and abnormal forms. 

 Occasionally the end of the flight or secondaries are affected, and 

 as in this case. the defect is most noticeable. Again, the bone of 

 the wing, at or beyond the joint furthest from the body is 

 turned in so that the flight feathers face wrong side out, as illus- 

 trated in Figure 4. Another form of this defect is seen in Figure 

 3, in which the secondaries are abnormal, turning down at the 

 points and exposing the points of flights. Occasionally wings do 

 not fold together properly, and remain open by the side. This 

 is what is known .as a slipped wing. For illustration see Figure 

 1. This undesirable phenomenon, known as the slipped wing, 

 has of recent years become common in many strains of pure- 

 bred fowls. This appears when the flights fold in reverse rather 

 than in the natural order ; those nearest the body dropping from 

 their natural position just inside the secondary farthest from the 

 body and appearing outside of the lower secondaries instead of 

 inside; thus leaving a space between the folded secondaries and 

 the primaries, which give rise to the name "slipped wing" the 

 primaries have the appearance of having slipped down. The 

 name is applied in such a case whether the primaries are reversed 

 or not. 



The outside appearance of such a wing is not altogether 

 unlike that of what is known as the split-wing. The latter is, 

 however, different as the flights, though folded, are not covered 

 by the secondaries. This split is caused by the primaries most 

 adjacent to the secondaries or the secondaries, most adjacent to 

 the primaries, taking the wrong direction, with the result that 

 the secondaries fail to cover the flights when folded. If such a 

 wing is spread or open, a space, sometimes a wide one, is noted 

 between the flights and secondaries. In some lines of blood, the 

 flight feathers, instead of being twisted or following the wrong 

 direction, are short and narrow and do not fold properly. (See 

 illustration, Plate 9, Figure 5.) 



