No. G27] GKIU! J'LAs.M OF TllK OSTRICII 



323 



the claim is based will appear later. Only the outline of 

 the facts can now be given in so far as they Ixvir upon 

 the condition of the germ plasm. 



Only a single row of under-coverts usually occurs on 

 the wing of the ostrich, its members alternating with the 

 remiges or wing quills (Fig. 1). In but two specimens 

 out of hundreds examined however lias the full number 

 of feathers required for alteration with the complete row 

 of remiges been found. Usually eight to ten are missing 

 from the elbow end of the row, though the numl)er varies, 

 and occasionally two or three vestigial feathers may ap- 

 pear between the normal members and the uiissing 

 sockets. Single plumes are at times met with in front of 

 the row and are obviously representatives of a second row, 

 while in one farmer's strain an almost complete second 

 row of under-coverts occurs, alternating with the tirst, 

 and in front of this are five or six members of a third row. 

 One is forced to the conclusion that the ancestral ostrich 

 had the under surface of its wings provided with several 

 rows of under-coverts in the same manner as modern fly- 

 ing birds, and that the rare occurrences mentioned are in 

 the nature of survivals, the germinal factors res])onsible 

 for their appearance having been largely, though not yet 

 altogether, lost to the race. 



The valuable wing quills or remiges ordinarily vary 

 from 33 to 39, having the same average, about 35.5, for 

 both the northern and southern birds. They constitute a 

 fluctuating series about the mode 3G, though there is much 

 probability that each separate number in the series will be 

 found to represent a pure line. Assuming that not much 

 numerical variation occurs in the plumes of the ostrich 

 the farmer has never yet bred for quantity, quality has 

 been his only consideration, Recently however a cock 

 bird has been discovered among the government's experi- 

 mental troops bearing 42 remiges, and it is submitted that 

 this high number represents an ancestral survival rather 

 than a reversion or mutation, and that the wing quills of 

 the African ostrich afford us various stages in degenera- 



