312 



THE WOELD OE LIEE 



from the rest. With a good lens the structure of the barbs, 

 with their delicate hooked barbules interlocking with the bent- 

 out upper margins of the barbules beneath them, can be seen, 

 as shown in the view and section here given. The barbs (B, 



Magnified View of the Barbs and Barbules forming the Web of a Bird's 



Wing-Feathers (X 50). 



Fig. 108. — 'View of a portion of two adjacent Barbs (B, B), looking from 

 the Shaft towards the edge of the Feather. 



bd, distal barbules; bp, proximal barbules. 



Fig. 109. — Oblique Section through the Proximal Barbules in a plane par- 

 allel to the Distal Barbules of the upper Figure. 

 Letters as above ; 1, 2, 3, barbicels and hamuli of the ventral side of the distal 

 barbule; 4, barbicels of the dorsal side of the same, without hamuli. 



(From Newton's Dictionary of Birds.) 



B in the figures) are elastic, homj plates set close together on 

 each side of the midrib of the feather, and pointing obliquely 

 outwards; while the barbules are to the barbs what the barbs 

 are to the feather — excessively delicate horny plates, which 



