63


lions, and are very likely to be mistaken for a portion of the

ba.stard wing, or even for primary coverts.


If the median and lesser coverts are removed from the

front of a Skylark's wing, it will be seen that all the greater

secondar}^ coverts originate inside and at the base of the quills

which the}^ overlap ; the primary coverts seem to me (though I

may be in error) to originate between the quills and to be directed

obliquely to the front of them.


The median coverts (m. c), represented in our illustration

by the inner series of white-tipped smaller feathers, and the

lesser coverts (1. c), which clothe the basal portion of the wing,

are arranged in a reverse direction to the greater coverts (s.c. and

p. c), the outermost feathers being on the surface, so that the

order of overlapping is in the opposite direction ; but, it must be

remembered, when examining skins and even living birds, that

the lesser coverts, being small and soft, get easily disarranged ;

moreover, I have often seen a bird, when preening its feathers,

pluck out and fling away a refractory covert which would not

take its proper place ; it is therefore not unusual to find more or

less confusion as regards the relative position of these tiny

details of plumage. The number of rows of lesser coverts

varies not a little, the Doves being most liberally supplied in

this respec5l.


The terminology of the feathered areas on the bodj^ is, for

the most part, readily comprehended, but there are one or two

terms which may prove puzzling, such as the ' lores ' or feathers

"between the upper mandible and the e3'e, the ' ear-coverts ' — a

patch of feathers covering the ear and often well-defined in

colour (as in the Song - Thrush), the ' axillaries ' — feathers

•covering the arm-pit and placed below and at the base of the

wing ; when the latter is extended they stand slightly away from

the surface of the bodj', and look like a continuation of the

scapularies carried under the wing.



PARROT NOTES.

By the Hon. and Rev. F. G. Button.


( Contimied from page 24).


yLKCKWS.—{Co7iti7med).


The Editor has been good enough to ask me to continue

my observations on Parrots. But one subject should be completed

at a time. We have not finished the Macaws. Someone must be

able to tell us something about the Crimson and Green, and the



