104 CLASS AVES. 



we go through life, and hourly pass by many of the productions 

 of nature, but highly deserving our attention, and alike calcu- 

 lated to produce admiration and astonishment. A common 

 feather may be instanced as one of the unheeded, but curious, 

 productions of creation. 



The feathers of birds are of three kinds : First, the plume, 

 or down ; secondly, the coverts, or tectrices, and the scapulars ; 

 and thirdly, the remiges, or flag-feathers, including the primary, 

 secondary, and tertial of the wings, and the rectrices, or those 

 of the tail. 



The wing and tail feathers are much used in dividing the 

 class, and as they are frequently mentioned in all writers on 

 ornithology, it may be useful to premise shortly, that the wing 

 consists of seven bones : one in the brachium, two in the cubi- 

 tus, two in the carpus, and two in the metacarpus, or spurious 

 wing. The ten larger quill-feathers, called primores, spring 

 from the carpus ; from the cubitus, an indefinite number, 

 called secondary, and from the brachium small feathers 

 only. In the metacarpus are implanted three small stiff 

 feathers, called the spurious wing, ala spuria, whose use is not 

 apparent. The accompanying wood-cut may serve to illustrate 

 this explanation. 



SiMi'ious 

 Willi/ " 



o. 



Seconclaiy 



The feathers, which are instruments not merely of clothing, 

 but of motion, are called remiges, flags, or quills. These, as 

 every one knows, are composed of a shaft, hollow, cylindrical, 

 and horny toward the bottom, which goes off into a subqua- 

 drangular, solid, but porous and hght, substance, protected by 



