CHARACTERS AND HABITS OF BIRDS II 



The pigment which colors the plumage may be found in 

 soluble form in the quills of immature colored feathers. It is 

 not conspicuous unless it is quite dark. In black fowls it is often 

 so abundant that a part remains in the skin when the feathers 

 are removed. After the pigment is deposited in the web of the 

 feather the color is fast. Water does not affect it, but it fades 

 a little with age and exposure. New plumage usually contains 

 a great deal of oil, a condition which is most conspicuous in 

 white birds, to whose plumage the oil gives a creamy tint. In 

 colored birds the presence of a large amount of oil in feathers 

 is desirable because it gives greater brilliance to the plumage. 



FIG. 2. White Leghorn chicks (ten days old) 



Growth and molting of feathers. The first covering of a young 

 bird is down. The young of birds which nest on the ground 

 have the down covering when hatched ; others acquire it in a 

 few days. In small land birds which feather quickly, as Leg- 

 horn and Hamburg chicks, the largest wing feathers may have 

 started to grow before the chick leaves the egg. In most kinds 

 of poultry, however, the young show no signs of feathers for 

 some days. The down is gradually replaced by small feathers, 

 and these by larger feathers as the bird grows. As feathers in 

 all stages of growth are found on the young bird at the same 

 time, it is not known whether all feathers are molted the same 

 number of times. In cases where some feathers were marked 

 and watched, or where the colors changed with the changing 

 feathers, it appeared that after the down three sets of feathers 



