Wing of the Lizard. 



163 



the middle of the wing, just so far into it as the close packing of the primaries will produce it, 

 entirely destroying the effect of what should be a uniformly dark wing. This defect is sometimes 

 very patent, and an examination of the individual feathers of such a wing will show an extended 

 margin of distinctly grey edging which is very objectionable. It should be remembered that it is 

 the broader inner flights — technically, the tertiaries, or tertials — those in which the stalk is found 

 in the middle of the web, which have the wide marginal lacing, and that as the stalk nears the 

 outside the light margin should vanish. We strongly recommend a careful examination of a living 

 wing, closed and expanded, when the distribution and effect of the colour will be plainly discerned. 

 The larger wing-coverts also have much to do with the make-up of a bird in which every 

 feather has its definite value. Each covert must represent a smaller edition of its corresponding 

 flight, the position and the extent of outer edging displayed demanding the most exact lacing : the 

 innermost are hidden by the marginal feathers of the saddle. With these larger coverts, lacing 

 may almost be said to end and spangling to begin, for the second or smaller coverts with their 



FIG. 52.— FOUL WING. 



rounde^ extremities possess something very much resembling the dark terminal eye which 

 determines spangle, albeit the marginal fringe does not assume a silver or a golden colour until 

 w? reach the row of feathers next above these, which, however, are not on the wing, but are the 

 outer row of the scapulars overlapping the base of these beautiful second coverts with the most- 

 perfect regularity. 



It will now be readily seen that our term Distinctive Plumage is not misapplied, since the 

 character of our bird depends, literally, on the distinctive character of each feather, and in no 

 part is distinctive elaboration more imperatively demanded than in the immediate region of the 

 shoulder, where the arrangement of the feathers can be more plainly seen than in the wing of a 

 clear bird, the body-colour of which is white, or at the best a very pale yellow, with only a faint 

 edging of the same colour. In the latter any defect is not so patent, but in the Lizard wing the 

 slightest blemish is palpably evident. On the decided marking of each of the smaller coverts, 

 of which there are several rows, though the first is the most important, depends much of the 

 finish of a good wing, and a well-marked clearly-defined row of " pinion-feathers," as they are 

 frequently called, will always turn the scale in anything like close competition. Where general 

 good properties prevail we may safely look for a good wing, but blemishes are often to be 

 met with of a positive character, A wing may be poor in colour and have only very indifferent 



