36 The Bird 
finer hooklets, and then the number of feathers on the 
pigeon’s body, we can echo the exclamation of Solomon: 
“The way of an eagle in the air” is “too wonderful for 
me!” 
Another beautiful adaptation to flight is seen in our 
Fig. 23.—Feathers of Condor and Emeu. The aftershaft in the former is reduced 
to a downy filament at the base of the vane; in the latter it equals the feather 
itself in size. 
feather. The upper part of the wing must of course be 
perfectly level, with no projections to catch the air and 
retard motion. So, on the upper side of the feather, we 
notice that the lines of barbs spring out flush with the 
flattened quill-top, while below, the shaft projects promi- 
nently from the vane. The obliquely forward direction 
in which the barbs grow, the change in shape of the 
