94 MORPHOLOGY OF THE ORGAXS OF VERTEBRATES. 



portions which are to be cast. The claws of the reptiles and 

 the homv beaks of the turtles and birds are also comifications 

 of the epidermis. 



Scales (upon the legs and feet) and claws of the same char- 

 acter (/.£.. epidermal comifications ) reappear in the birds, but 

 dermal bones are never found. Birds have besides a peculiar 

 epidermal covering, the feathers, which must have more atten- 

 tion. In the following account it must be 

 borne in mind that in the development of 

 the feathers, as in the scale of a snake, a 

 dermal papilla takes the initiative, and that 

 the ultimate structure is entirely formed of 

 comified epidermis. 



Feathers occur only in the group of 

 birds, and here three principal types are 

 found, — down -feathers, pin-feathers, and 

 contour-feathers, differing much in ap- 

 pearance, but of essentially the same struc- 

 ture. Contour-feathers are those which 

 cover the body in the adult bird, giving it 

 its outlines, and forming the broad expanse 

 of wings and tail. In a t}-pical contour- 

 feather are to be distinguished an axial 

 portion, composed of a proximal hollow 

 part, the quill, and a distal and more soUd 

 shaft, the latter bearing on either side 

 lateral outgro\rths, the barbs ; shaft and 

 barbs making up the vane. Inside the 

 quill occur thin structureless partitions, 

 the pith, while the shaft bears on its so- 

 called inferior surface a longitudinal 

 groove, the umbilicus. The barbs bear 

 on their sides smaller projections, the bar- 

 boles, which are usuall\- provided with 

 minute hooks ; these, interlocking with similar hooks on the 

 adjacent barbules, convert the whole vane into a continuous 

 sheet. In many cases a second or aftershaft joins the axis of 

 the feather on the lower surface near the Junction of the main 



t-e 



Fig. ioo. Contour 

 feather, a, quill ; b, shaft 

 t , barbs. 



