402 The Bird 



peacock, which has ten pairs, while the peahen has one 

 pak less. 



The fusing together of these bones has resulted in the 

 drawing together of the feathers, so that, instead of the 

 long, unwieldy, paired affair, they are arranged in fan 

 shape, although still in pairs, and usually showing a slight 

 graduation reminiscent of the old-style tail. Some birds 

 have as few as four pairs of tail-feathers, while others 



FIG. 316. Tail-hones of Ostrich. 



have as many as twelve. In the abnormal domestic breed 

 of pigeons known as fantails, as many as forty tail-feathers 

 are sometimes found. The cassowary and the emeu 

 have none at all, while the ostrich seems to have an in- 

 definite number; the tails of these two unrelated groups 

 of birds seeming, like their wing-feathers, to have lost 

 uniformity from little use. Besides these true tail-feathers 

 there are others, usually smaller, which grow from above 

 and below the tail, being known as upper and under tail- 



