VOL. 48 1905 
SMITHSONIAN 
MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 
VCL. Ill QUARTERLY ISSUE PART I 
THE STRUCTURE OF WING-FEATHERS 
By DOCTOR E. MASCHA 
[The following paper on the “ Structure of Wing-Feathers ”’ 
gives an account of an investigation conducted by Doctor E. Mascha 
under the direction of Professor R. von Lendenfeld, of the Imperial 
German University in Prague. The original German text of this 
paper is to be published in the Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche 
Zoologie. 
Doctor von Lendenfeld, who was a competitor in the Hodgkins 
competition of the Smithsonian Institution, has more recently been 
awarded a grant in aid of his research on the anatomy of the flight 
organs, the investigation being continued under his direction by 
Doctor Mascha, as here described. | 
Il. INTRODUCTION 
The object of this paper is in the first instance to give a detailed 
account of the morphology of the wing-feathers of birds as used 
in flight. As our knowledge of this subject is far from satisfactory, 
I have made a special study of the organs of flight, hoping that I 
might be able to supply needed and valuable information for those 
interested in the great problem of aerial navigation. 
The remiges of Columba livia were first investigated. Although 
the structure of these feathers is in many respects simple and typical, 
several questions concerning the function of particular parts could 
be satisfactorily answered only by a comparative study of the wing- 
feathers of other birds. Through this extension of my investiga- 
tion I was enabled to find out which parts are constant and therefore 
probably essential, and which not being always present are infer- 
entially of secondary importance. Among the most noteworthy dis- 
coveries made through this comparative study are a knowledge of 
I 
