Feathers 41 



same channel perforates both and the nutriment pith 

 which supplies the down traverses the hollow quill of 

 the succeeding feather. A bird's swaddling-clothes and 

 his first full dress are cut from the same piece. But when 

 these perfect feathers reach full size, the aperture at the 

 base closes, all blood-supply is cut off, and the feather at 

 the commencement of its usefulness becomes a dead 

 thing. There is no vital connection between the feathers 

 of all the following moults. Each is separate, the papilla 

 or feather-cells reawakening to new activity every time 

 the process occurs. So when a bird's wing is clipped, no 

 pain is felt, any more than when a person's hair is cut. 

 Such feathers are of course not renewed until the succeed- 

 ing moult. If a feather in a living bird be pulled out, 

 it will be replaced immediately by another, and this will 

 be repeated as often as the feather is removed. 



In cassowaries, each moult is advertised by dangling 

 streamers of the old plumage still attached to the tips 

 of the incoming feathers, but this connection is not a 

 living one, the adult feathers being as lifeless as those of 

 other birds. As powerful savages often exhibit very 

 childlike traits, so these great birds are absurdly marked 

 with what, in other species, are sure signs of recent chick- 

 hood. 



The changing of plumage of the Brown Pelican is well 

 shown by the illustrations. The naked young (Fig. 18) 

 become covered with papillae (Fig. 10) which soon burst 

 into a coating of the softest white down (Fig. 36) ; this 

 in turn gives place to the juvenile plumage of gray, the 

 features of the wings and shoulders appearing first (Fig. 



