74 Caxaries and Cage-Birds. 



The phenomenon of moulting' is a wonderful provision of Nature, common to all animals 

 whose outer covering consists of hair, feathers, or other analogous forms. The bare mention 

 of this fact seems to open out at once a wide field for thought, upon which, however, we must not 

 venture to trespass one inch. We use the word in its generally accepted significance, as referring 

 to the annual shedding of the feathers of birds, which, besides being of use as an outer covering, 

 are destined for other purposes, for the accomplishment of which they require to be kept in a state 

 of constant repair and efficiency. As a livery, only one suit is allowed in the year, and this is apt 

 to get much injured by wear and tear as well as in the broils and vicissitudes through which it has 

 to pass. Some parts of it will bear patching and repairing ; but as it gets old and worn out there 

 appears to be a limit even to this, and the wearer has often to go in rags and tatters, with portions 

 of his body uncovered. One condition on which the new livery is granted is that the old one 

 shall be entirely cast away ; and in the exercise of much kindness and wisdom it is supplied just 

 at the time when it is most required. We naturally inquire. What is this covering formed of, 

 what its constituent elements, and what its component parts .■" Mudie, in his " British Birds," says 

 that "the feathers of birds, the coverings of the featherless parts, and even the beaks and claws, 

 are all, chemically speaking, formed of nearly the same materials ; and nearly the same with the 

 hair and cuticle of all animals, and even with the epidermis which covers living shells. This 

 material is coagulated albumen, or nearly the same substance as white of egg when consolidated by 

 heat, in which state it better resists the action of water than almost any other fle.xible substance. 

 This substance is, especially in the upper or more coloured and glossy part of the feathers, 

 combined with oils and metallic substances in very minute proportions ; but in the down and light- 

 coloured feathers it is nearly pure." And further, in giving definitions of the component parts, he 

 refers to the " eaf-coverts , which consist of certain soft feathers co\'ering the external organ of 

 hearing. The scapulars, or feathers which cover the shoulders and shoulder-bones, and the places 

 where the humeri, or first bones of the wing, answering to the bones of the human arm above the 

 elbow, are articulated. They unite without much distinction with the common feathers of the 

 back, and along with those of the wings and the sides. The scapular feathers serve only as a 

 clothing to the parts they cover, but they form a thick and comparatively downy covering, which, 

 while it admits of easy motion, preserves the important joints which it covers from the changes of 

 the weather. The bastard wing, consisting of a greater or smaller number of feathers, bearing 

 some resemblance to the quills of the true wing. They grow from a little bone which is united to 

 the third joint of the wing. The lesser -wing-coverts, which are the first part of the plumage of the 

 wings, and which in all birds take the form of definite and firm feathers. There are generally 

 several rows of them ; and there are the under-coverts which answer to them, and line the under or 

 inner side of the wings; but these are more slender and downy in their consistence, and, generally 

 speaking, have less colour. The greater wing-cover ts, which lie under the lesser ones, and are still 

 larger and stronger, stretching a considerable way over the quills or flying feathers, and being 

 supports to these for a greater part of their length than the lesser coverts. They are also much 

 stronger in proportion to the coverts which answer to them on the under sides of the wings. The 

 primaries, or principal quills, which form the termination of the wings, and are the strongest 

 feathers in the bird. They rise from the hand, or that portion of the wings which is below the 

 wrist-joint, and which, though it sometimes contains three distinct bones in its length, is frequently 

 called the first bone of the wing. These feathers are numbered in order; the outer one, or that 

 which is foremost in the expanded, or lowest in the closed wing, is the first. The secondaries, or 

 second quills of the wing, arising from that part of the wing which is commonly called the second 

 bone, and which answers to the forearm in man. They come from it towards the wrist-joint, and 



