JANUARY 9 



forward web, which has to meet the air in flying and do 

 battle with all kinds of weather, are much shorter and 

 stiffer than those on the inner or rearward web. A 

 small portion of the web on the lower part of the shaft, 

 chiefly on the outer or forward side, consists of down, 

 serving to protect the skin and sinews of the wing from 

 cold. The rest of the web is made up of the aforesaid 

 rami or barbs — thin, narrow plates or strips of horny 

 material growing out of the shaft, each one individually 

 distinct, but all so closely packed together as to form a 

 continuous surface or ' web.' The barbs on the inner or 

 rearward web are much longer and more pliant than 

 those on the forward web. The inner web of the 

 pigeon's flight feather before me, 8^ inches in length, is 

 made up of close on four hundred of these barbs. In 

 the inner web of a crane's flight feather the late Professor 

 Newton counted about six hundred and fifty barbs. 



Now, however closely the barbs were packed together 

 (it would be impossible to plant them more closely than 

 they stand), and however firmly they were attached to 

 the shaft (it requires a pretty sharp tug to pull them ofl' 

 it), they would never cling together closely enough to 

 stand the rough work which is inevitable in flight 

 unless further provision were made for knitting them 

 together. Such provision is not wanting in the shape 

 of mechanism which the deftest of human fingers are 

 not equal to constructing. It requires a good strong 

 lens to reveal the design. 



The upper edge of each ramus or barb is thicker than 

 the lower edge, and this thicker edge is furnished with 

 an immense number of radii or barbules. These bar- 



