i62 GENERAL ORNITHOLOGY part ii 



the pteryla alaris. They are of two main sorts : the flight-feathers 

 proper, or long stiff quills, collectively called reniiges (Lat. remex, pi. 

 remiges, rowers) ; and the smaller, weaker feathers overlying them, 

 and hence called coverts, or tectrices (Lat. tectrix, pi. tecirices, coverers). 

 To these may be added as a third distinct group, the bastard quills, 

 which constitute the 



Alula, or Ala Spuria (Lat. alula, little wing, diminutive of ah, 

 wing ; spuria, spurious, bastard). The " little wing " is simply the 

 small parcel of feathers which grow upon the " thumb " (see Fig. 27, 

 d 2 ; 29, d and h ; 30, al). Highly significant as these may be in 

 a morphological point of view, as representing what this part of the 

 wing may have been in early times, they are so much reduced in 

 modern birds as to be of little account in practical ornithology. In 

 fact, the unpractised student may fail to recognise them at first. 

 They form a small packet on the fore outer border of the pinion 

 near the carpal angle, and lie smoothly upon the upper surface of 

 the wing, strengthening and finishing off what would be otherwise 

 a weak spot in the contour of the wing-border. It is quite easy, on 

 recognising them, to lift them collectively a little away from the 

 other feathers, oiving to the mobility of thumb. In fact, they are 

 sometimes quite obtrusive, when faulty taxidermy has discomposed 

 them. They are not often conspicuously modified either in size or 

 colour. In a few birds {e.g. Cathartes), a claw will be found at the 

 end of the joint which bears them. (The student must be careful 

 to discriminate between the use of the word spurious in the present 

 connection and its application to a rudimentary condition of the 

 first r«m«a;^ seep. 167.) The 



Wing-Coverts overlie the bases of the large quills on both 

 the upper and under surfaces of the wing. They are therefore 

 conveniently divided into an upper set (tectrices superiares) and an 

 under set (tect. inferiwes). The former are so much more conspicuous 

 than the latter that they are always understood when " upper " is 

 not specified. The latter are sometimes collectively called "the 

 lining of the wings." Coverts include all the small feathers of the 

 wings excepting the bastard quills ; they extend a varying distance 

 along the bases of the flight-feathers. The ordinary disposition 

 and division of the upper coverts is as follows : — One set, rather 

 long and stiflSsh, grow upon the pinion, and are close-pressed upon 

 the bases of the outer nine or ten remiges, covering these large 

 feathers about as far as their structure is plumulaceous. These are 

 the upper primary coverts, or coverts of the primaries (Fig 30, pc) ; 

 they are ordinarily the least conspicuous of any. All the rest of 

 the upper coverts are secondary; they spring mostly from the 

 forearm. These are considered in three groups or rows. The 

 greater upper secondary coverts, called simply the "greater coverts" 



