CHAP. II.] GROWTH OF THEIE FEATHERS. 59 



dible by those who have not watched the result. A 

 little Pigeon grows enormously the first twelve hours ; 

 after the third day, still more rapidly ; and for a time 

 longer at a proportionate rate. If it do not, something 

 is wrong, and it is not likely to be reared at all. The 

 squab that remains stationary is sure to die. Some- 

 times, of two squabs, one will go on growing like a 

 mushroom or a puff-ball, and the other will keep as it 

 was, till the thrifty one weighs six or eight times as 

 much as its brother or sister on which the spell of 

 ill-luck has been laid. 



The young are at first sparsely covered with long 

 filaments of down ; the root of each filament indicates 

 the point from which each stub or future feather-case 

 is to start. The down, for a while, still hangs on the 

 tips of some of the feathers during their growth, and 

 finally, we believe, does not drop off from them, but is 

 absorbed into the shaft of the growing feather. No 

 domestic birds afford such good opportunities of ob- 

 serving the growth of feathers as Pigeons. Mr. Yar- 

 rell gives some minute details respecting the growth of 

 that peculiar clothing with which this Class of Birds are 

 outwardly protected, in the " Transactions of the London 

 Zoological Society," vol. i. p. 13, which might be largely 

 quoted did space permit ; but still, as it is, room must 

 be found for a few sentences. 



" The bulb or pulp, which is the foundation of each 

 feather, has its origin in a gland or follicle of the 

 skin ; and as the pulp lengthens, this gland or follicle 

 is absorbed. The pulp still lengthening becomes in- 

 vested on its outer surface with several concentric layers 

 of condensed cellular membrane, from which the shaft, 

 the filaments of both lateral webs, the colouring matter, 



