SEC. Ill 



EXTERIOR PARTS OF BIRDS 



163 



(tectrices majores, Fig. 30, gsc), are the first, outermost, longest row, 

 reacliing nearest the tips of the flight-feathers ; they overlie the 

 bases of nearly all the remiges, excepting the first nine or ten. The 

 median upper secondary coverts, shortly known as the " middle coverts " 

 (tectrices medice), are a next row, shorter and therefore less exposed, 

 hut still quite evidently forming a special series (Fig. 30, msc). It is a 

 common feature of these median coverts that they shingle over each 

 other contrariwise to the way the greater coverts are imbricated, the 

 outer vane of one being under the inner vane of the next outer one. 

 All the rest of the upper secondary coverts, forming several indis- 

 tinguishable rows, pass under the general name of lesser coverts 

 (tectrices minores; Fig. 30, be). The greater coverts furnish an excel- 



Fio. 30.— Feathers of a sparrow's wing ; nat. size. (For explanation see text.) 



lent zoological character ; for in no Passeres are they more than half 

 as long as the remiges they cover, while the reverse is the case in 

 most birds of lower orders. Woodpeckers, however, though non- 

 passerine, have quite short coverts. The under coverts have the 

 same general arrangement as the upper ; but they are more alike 

 and less distinctly disposed in rows or series ; so that for practical 

 purposes they pass under the general name of under wing-coverts, or 

 lining of the wing. Since, when the wing is particularly marked on 

 the under side, it is the coverts and not the remiges that are highly 

 or variously coloured, the common expression " wing below," or 

 "under surface of the wing," refers to these coverts more particu- 

 larly. We should distinguish, however, from the under coverts in 



