378 OSTRICH PLUMES. 



ployed in cutting belong to about 100 families in the commune of Assio. 

 Those in piercing and rounding, to about 60 families living in other 

 parts of the valley. Each village works exclusively at beads of a fixed 

 size. The inhabitants go to Genoa to procure the raw material from 

 the coral sellers, and to take back the coral which they have wrought. 

 In Genoa, each manufacturer employs from ten to twenty or more 

 women, who submit the coral to a preparatory process before it is given 

 to the workers of Bisagno. 



Upwards of thirty men or women are employed in their own homes 

 in cutting coral with facets. There are, perhaps, also thirty engravers 

 of cameos and coral. It may be safely affirmed that, from 5,000 to 

 6,000 persons in the province of Genoa gain their livelihood either by 

 fishing for, working up, or selling coral, and that this craft produces a 

 revenue of 80,0007. Genoa exports its coral to Austria, Hungary, 

 Poland, England, Aleppo, Madras, and Calcutta. 



OSTRICH PLUMES. 



The most beautiful, the most complex, and the most highly- 

 elaborated of all the coverings of animals, due to the develop- 

 ments of the epidermal system, is the plumage of birds. Well might 

 the eloquent Paley say, — " Every feather is a mechanical wonder ; 

 their disposition, all inclined backward, the down about the stem, the 

 overlapping of their tips, their different configuration in different parts, 

 not to mention the variety of their colours, constitute a vestment for 

 the bodj', so beautiful, and so appropriate to the life which the animal 

 has to lead, as that, I think, we should have had no conception of anything 

 equally perfect, if we had never seen it, or can now imagine anything 

 more so. 



A feather consists of the " quill," the " shaft," and the " vane :" the 

 vane consists of " barbs " and " barbules." 



The quill is pierced by a lower and an upper orifice, and contains a 

 series of light, dry, conical capsules, fitted one upon another, and united 

 together by a central pedicle. 



The shaft is slightly bent ; the concave side is divided into two sur- 

 faces by a middle longitudinal line continued from the upper orifice of 

 the quill, the convex side is smooth. Both sides are covered with a 

 horny material, similar to that of the quill ; and they inclose a peculiar 

 white, soft, elastic substance, called the " pith." 



The barbs are attached to the sides of the shaft, and consist of plates, 

 arranged with their fiat sides towards each other, and their margins in 



