396 
C. J. Sundevall on the Wings of Birds. 
In Aptenodytes (which, at least as regards the plumage 
is decidedly the lowest of all forms of birds) all the wing- 
feathers are very small and hard, and have an external 
resemblance to scales, which are cleft at the margin into a 
fringe. Like the body-feathers in the same genus, they 
cover the surface uniformly, without interspaces, like the 
scales of fishes and reptiles, and form on both sides from 
25 to 30 rows, without any difference except that those to¬ 
wards the quill-margin of the wing are somewhat larger, 
so that they more distinctly cover the roots of the next row. 
In all other birds the number of series is much less (at the 
utmost 12 on each side) ; they leave considerable inter¬ 
spaces, and are of quite different nature. 
As regards the different series, we may accept the follow¬ 
ing kinds of wing-feathers :— 
(1) Wing-quills (Pennse alares, Remiges, Linn. & 111.) are 
only a single row, which are seated in the posterior margin 
of the wing and are the largest of all. All the others are 
usually named coverts (tectrices). 
(2) Large coverts (Tectrices majores; Pteromata, Ill.), 
a series of feathers which lie immediately over the roots 
of the quill-feathers, inserted in the skin behind the muscular 
layer. 
(3) Second series of coverts , which are also seated in 
the fold of skin behind the true arm or hand. They often 
show the peculiarity that they lie in a reverse position to the 
preceding, as to which more hereafter. 
(4) Small coverts (Plumse or Tectrices minores, bra- 
chiales, cubitales, digitales, so-named according to the part 
upon which they are seated). They form from three to five 
series, and are placed upon those parts of the skin which 
enclose the bones and muscles of the limb. They are wanting 
upon the cubitus in all birds which possess singing-muscles 
at the lower larynx, but occur in all other birds. 
(5) Arm-fold feathers, or the anterior small feathers of the 
wing (Plumse antecubitales, or Tectrices minimse), are seated 
in several rows upon the fold of skin in front of the arm 
itself. 
