PLUMAGE. 41 



water birds, which seek their food peaceably on the banks, 01 by 

 swimming in the shallow waters, have very different plumage 

 from those which hawk about on the wing, in order to catch what 

 the troubled sea brings to the surface. If the habit of the bird 

 be to steal softly on its prey, then the feathers are fined off to 

 exceedingly delicate points, so that it can glide silently through 

 the air. 



The feathers of birds, while they remain perfect and firm in 

 their connection, are really parts of a living animal, and as such 

 they must be regarded as organs of feeling. They do not, pro- 

 bably, in themselves feel pain, but they are in intimate connection 

 with parts which do. The epidermis in no animal appears to feel 

 pain, even in those parts of the animal which are regarded as 

 being more immediately the organs of sensation ; but they very 

 speedily transmit impressions to the parts that do feel. It is the 

 same with hair, and with all the appendages of the cuticle, such 

 as nails, claws, hoofs, and horns. The horse feels his footsteps 

 in the dark, even when his hoofs are shod with iron ; and he feels 

 not only the touch of a wall, a gate, or any other obstacle, but 

 he feels the difference which such objects cause in the resistance 

 of the air, and that enables him to avoid touching them. 



The horse feels his way by means of the hair, and birds must 

 in like manner often feel their way by their feathers. Such 

 must be habitually the case with Owls and other nocturnal birds, 

 which can fly darkling through thick woods and other intricate 

 places ; and though the Owls have their 'eyes directed forwards, 

 and not laterally, as many other birds have, they are by that 

 means less capacitated for avoiding by sight, even admitting that 

 they can see with the smallest possible portion of light, those 

 obstacles which it would be the most awkward to encounter 

 those of course which would injure, entangle, or impede their 

 wings. If one wing were to come in contact with a tree, or even 

 with a leaf, the bird would be upset, as certainly as a man is, 

 when in walking heedlessly he places one foot over a pit or ditch 

 while the other is on the ground. 



The necessity of feeling with the feathers is not confined to 

 nocturnal birds, but is essential to the safety of all the winged 

 tribes, the feathers must therefore always be in a state of great 

 perfection. Now though the shafts of many feathers and the 

 larger ribs of the webs or bones of not a few, are of considerable 

 substance and strength, all feathers are subdivided till the ulti- 

 mate ramifications are exceedingly minute. Consequently, they 

 produce very large surfaces to the air, in proportion to the quan- 

 tities of matter they contain. 



Feathers are thus very much exposed to atmospheric action, 

 which dries them, and renders them unfit for the functions that 



