The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-23

] e+'ANN
 long jointed, lizard-like tails were | feathered. The possession of feathers,
 moreover, is closely connected with the
 other characteristics that mark off the
 class of birds so distinctly from their nearest relatives. To many minds it is difficult to believe or imagine that birds
 are the descendants of reptiles. A rep l tile is cold blooded and unable to fly. A /, bird Is the hottest-blooded of all anil
 mals. The change has been due in part | to the development of feathers That | feathers aer non-conductors of heat is
 a fact taken advantage of by every one
 fact taken advantage of by every one who has used an ider-down quilt. The | Increased temperature has helped to | make the life of birds quicker and more | intense, to make them "glorifed rep tiles,' as they have been called. The power of flight has also helped; and it | is feathers that made flight possible. | It is true that in past geological ages
 there were flying reptiles without feath- CTS known as pterodactyls But these
 seem not to have been the ancestors of birds. Whether owing to the want of
 feathers or to inability to stand upright H'e'NN~SN'' "t+'N
 pterodactyls have left no descendant.
 But another group of reptiles developed
 feathers and became the ancestors of a class that was to dispute with the man.
 mala the highest rank in the organic world. Feathers help flight not only in-
 directly by keeping up the body temper
 ature, but directly by their structure.
 Birds of the duck family, that moult all
 the chief wind feathers at once, are un-
 able to fly until new set has grown.
 But birds have found a further use for
 feathers. Placed above immediate want
 by their higher organization, they have
 been enabled to give considerable share
 of their attention to matters beyond the
 bare necessities of existence. The great
 CT development of the brain has made
 possible the cultivation of an aesthetic
 sense. The feathers, therefore-almost
 the only parts exposed to view-have
 been used for decorative purposes. In
 this the birds have set an example that
 they have since had reason to regret.
 4 To examine more closely the various
 uses of feathers it will be necessary to
 consider the structure of feathers, their
 various forms and colors, and their dis
 NQNtI lilG Cl lHt DobS
 The appearance of an ordinary wing
 or tail feather Is familiar to all It con-
 sists of a hollow, transparent quill, con-
 tinued as a solid and opaque shaft
 fringed with barbs. These barbs in
 their turn bear barbules, and these again give off barbicels. It is the bar
 bules and barbicels that give the feather its value in flying and steering. If the
 barbs were allowed to stream out inde- pendently, the feather would offer little
 resistance to the air, and would there- fore be useless as lever to propel or guide the bird in flight As every one
 has observed however. the barbs of quillfeathers cling together. This is eff fected by means of the barbulss and bar bicels Each barb carries two kinds of barbules, each kind confined to one side of the barb. Those on the side toward the base of the feather have doubled in margins to which cling the hooked barbicels of the adjoining barb. As the barbules cross each other at a consider able angle, each of the hook-bearing set is attached to about five of the doubled in set, and each of these is held by the same number of hooks belonging to diff ferent barbules of the next barb. The | wing and tail feathers of the type de- | scribed are classed with the ordinary feathers that form the general covering of the body as ''contour feathers"
 Of the remaining varieties the chief are those, known as downs, and filo- plumes or thread d-feathers. Many | feathers appear double, owing to the | presence of a supplementary shaft | springing from the same quill and bear ing barbs and barbules, but no barbi- cels. This "after-sh shaft" as it is called, | may be equal in size to the main shaft, | as in the cassowary and emu, or 1t may | be small or absent, as in the ostrich. It is best developed in downs and in small | contour feathers. The downs owe their | loose appearance to the absence of the booklets that bind together some, though not all, of the contour feathers. In some downs all the barbs start from one point. are the result of the SUD- pression of the barbs.
 Flying birds have always, in their adult state feathers with interlocked barbs. Downs and filoplumes are found only under the contour feathers, or as- with them. In running birds a structure that would offer much resist anec to the air would be a hndrance rather than an advantage. This is probably the explanation of the loose- flowing contour feathers of the ostrich and in the bare spines of the casso- wary's wings. So in the penguin, which uses it's wings under water the feath- CTS have been reduced almost to scales, and lie close to the body.
 In the same birds we find an unusual of feathers, due apparent y to the same causes. The contour feathers, on other parts of the body as we'll as the wings and tail, appear to be ,f some use in flight. It would therefore De more advantageous for a flying bird o have it's feathers in well-defined oatches capable of independent move- nent, than to have them spread equally 1ver the whole body. We find accord ngly that very few birds have a con- inuous covering of feathers. In the the ostrich and the apteryX, however, the feathers are equally dis ributed, and thus offer less resistance to . he water or air.
 The colors of feathers are produced in several ways They may be due to the presence of pigment or to structure, or q bOth Red black and brown are al- 1