W 1 N 



W 1 N 



plumage of many feeds among the order of Contorig, are 

 juftly denominated wings. In a more limited and technical 

 fenfe, the Ala, or wing, properly fo called, is a thin mem- 

 branous expanfion, enabling the feeds to flutter to a fmall 

 diftance from their native capfule, rather than to fly very 

 far. Such is found in Embothhium, Grevillea, Bank- 

 SIA, CoNCHlUM, (fee thofe articles,) as well as in our 

 Englilh genera Rhinanthus and Spergula ; in the 

 latter we believe this part to vary, in degree at leaft. 

 Gartner meant to confine the term ala to a membranous 

 expanfion of the upper part of a feed, or feed-veflel, but he 

 has not adhered to this intention. Winged capfules, 

 which do not burft, are feen in the Afh and the Maple. 

 One which does burft occurs ia the curious exotic genus 

 Begonia. The feeds of fome umbelliferous plants, as 

 Thapsia, have feveral wings ; thefe are always lateral and 

 longitudmal in that natural order ; but it is far more gene- 

 ral for them to be folitary. When the wing encompaffes 

 the feed, as in the beautiful inftance of Bignonla cchinata, 

 figured in Gaertner, t. 52, that author properly adopts the 

 term ala, and yet the expanfion to which it applies is really 

 a margo membranaceus, (membranous expanfion,) furround- 

 ing the feed entirely, except at the very bafe. 



The appellation of wing is given alfo to any membra- 

 nous or leafy dilatation of a footftalk, or of the angles of a 

 Hem, branch, or flower-ftalk, as well as of a calyx. The 

 wings of a papilionaceous corolla are the two lateral petals, 

 both ahke, which embrace the bafe of the keel, and are 

 fheltered by the llandard. Thefe fpread remarkably in fine 

 weather. They differ greatly in fize and (hape in different 

 genera. See PAPiLiONACEiE. 



Wing, in Geography, a village of England, in Bucking- 

 hamfhire, with 993 inhabitants ; 7 miles N.E. of Aylef- 

 bury. — Alfo, a town of Sweden, in Weft Gothland ; 40 

 miles E. of Gotheburg. 



Wing, in Ornithology. See Feather, and Flying. 



The wings are adapted for flight in all birds, except the 

 dodo, oftriches, great awk, and the penguins, whofe wings 

 are too fhort for the ufe of flying : but in the dodo and 

 oftrich, when extended, they ferve to accelerate their motion 

 in running ; and in penguins perform the office of fins, in 

 fvvimming or diving. The wings have near their end an 

 appendage covered with four or five feathers, called the 

 bajlard wings : the leifer coverts are the teSrices : the 

 greater coverts are thofe which lie beneath the former, and 

 cover the quill-feathers and the fecondaries. The quill- 

 feathers, or primores, fpring from the firft bones of the 

 wings, are ten in number, and broader 011 their inner than 

 exterior fides : the fecondaries are thofe that arife from the 

 fecond part, or cubitus, are about eighteen in number, and 

 equally broad on both fides. The primary and fecondary 

 wing-feathers are called remiges. The tertials are a tuft 

 of feathers placed beyond the fecondaries, near the junction 

 of the wings with the body. This, in water-fowl, is gene- 

 rally longer than the fecondaries, and cuneiform. The 

 fcapulars are a tuft of long feathers arifing near the junftion 

 of the wings with the body, and lie along the fides of the 

 back, but may be eafily diftinguilhed, and raifed with one's 

 finger. The inner coverts are thofe that clothe the under 

 fide of the wing. 



The wings of fome birds are inftruments of offence : the 

 anhima of Marcgrave has two ftrong fpines in the front of 

 each wing ; a fpecies of plover has a fingle one on each ; 

 as have alfo the whole tribe of jacana, and the gambo, or 

 fpur-winged goofe of Willughby. Pennant's Geneva of 

 Birds, pref. p. 4. 



Wings, among the Fly-dafs, afford feveral fubordinate 

 12 



diftinftions of the genera of thofe animals, under the ancient 

 general claffes. 



Several fpecies of flies, while they are in a ftate of reft, 

 or only walking, (hew feveral regularly diftinft manners 

 of carrying their wings. The much greater numbers, 

 however, carry them in a parallel or plain pofition : fome 

 being perpendicular to the length of the body without 

 covering it, others covering the body without covering 

 one another : the wings of others crofs one another on the 

 body of the animal, fome of which round themfelves there, 

 the upper wing being more elevated on the middle of the 

 body than on the fides. Some flies have their wings placed 

 on their backs, and applied againft one another, in a per- 

 pendicular pofition : the wings of others are applied 

 obhqucly againft their fides, and meet above the bodv of 

 their inner edges, forming a kind of hollow roof under 

 which the body is placed ; others form at their junftion on 

 the back a flat depreffed roof, and others have them meet- 

 ing under their bellies. 



The ftrufture of the wngs of different flies might alfo 

 furnifh matter of farther diftinftions. The greater part of 

 them are of a fine ftrufture, and reprefent the fineft gauze, 

 and are equally tranfparent, or nearly fo, in all parts. 

 Some flies, however, have wings of a lefs degree of tranf- 

 parence, and fome even opaque ones. Others of the four- 

 winged flies have obfcure fpots alfo diftributed near their 

 very tranfparent texture ; fuch are the wings of the fcorpion- 

 fly ; and fome of the two-winged flies have wings partly 

 opaque, partly pellucid, the opaque fpots being feparated 

 by tranfparent lines. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. vol. iv. p. 136, 

 &c. 



Wings of Bulterjlles. The beautiful wings of this genus 

 of infefts are diftinguilhed from thofe of the fly-kind, by 

 their not being thin and tranfparent, like them, but thicker 

 and opaque. This opacity in them is owing only to the 

 duft which comes off" from them, and fticks to the fingers 

 in handling them, and it is alfo to this dufl that they 

 owe all their beautiful variety of colours. The earlier 

 naturalifts, for this reafon, diftinguiflied thefe infefts by 

 the appellation of fuch as had farinaceous wings. The 

 ufe of the microfcope has taught us, that this duft is not 

 the refult of fome other fubflance broken into fragments ; 

 but every particle of it is a regularly figured body, made 

 for the place and order it has in the covering of the wing. 



The feveral fpecies of butterflies, and even the different 

 parts of the fame wing, afford thefe bodies of different 

 fhapes and figures. Moft of the authors who have written 

 of microfcopic objefts, have given the figures of the prin- 

 cipal varieties of thefe ; but no one has given fo many as 

 Bonani in his Micrographia, in which work the figures of 

 the various kinds take up four quarto plates. 



It has been the general cuftom of authors to call thefe 

 feathers ; but they are by M. Reaumur, with much greater 

 juftice, called fcales. Their ftrufture has no refemblance 

 to that of feathers, for they are little flat and thin bodies, 

 of more or lefs length, and always having a fhort pedicle 

 which enters into the fubftance of the wing. 



When the wing of a butterfly is viewed by a microfcope, 

 the arrangement of thefe feveral bodies in it is feen to be 

 extremely beautiful and regular. The fcales he as regu- 

 larly and evenly one over another, as the tiles on a houfe 

 or the fcales on the fifh-kind, every feries of them covering 

 a fmall part of that feries which runs below it. The upper 

 and under part of the wing are equally furnifhed with thefe, 

 and tliere is no fpecies of this creature, in every wing of 

 which there are not feveral figures of thefe fcales in feveral 

 parts. 



The 



