File:Bird lore (1903) (14564170619).jpg

Identifier: birdlore51903nati (find matches)
Title: Bird lore
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: National Committee of the Audubon Societies of America National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals National Audubon Society
Subjects: Birds Birds Ornithology
Publisher: New York City : Macmillan Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ucklings, Gulls, Game-birds or Hawks andOwls. In Woodpeckers it is aborted. The juvenal plumage, delicate and transient in most land birds, maybe worn wholly or in part for many months in large species, and is oftenconfused with other plumages. If, however, we bear in mind that thereis nothing haphazard in the growth of feathers and the sequence of moltsand resulting plumages, our ideas upon the subject will become verymuch clearer. At a definite time and at a definite point of the skin,each ^nd every feather grows, and plumages are only successive generationsof feathers. Abrasion, attrition and weathering of feathers go to make up wearwhich sometimes produces surprising color-changes in plumages. Theloss of the brown feather edgings of, for instance, the fall Snowflake orRed-winged Blackbird, displays the black hidden beneath, and the loss ofthe little barbules of the feathers of Crossbills or of the pink PurpleFinch brightens red colors by subtracting the gray tints. The first (156)
Text Appearing After Image:
158 Bird-Lore effect of wear is shown by photomicrographs of brown Purple Finch feathers,and the second is shown by the figures of Crossbill feathers. We haveillustrated also the effect of wear on a Meadow Lark, showing how thelighter-colored parts of feathers may disintegrate. The growth of each feather is a chapter by itself. The histologistwith microscope and cross-sections tells us how beneath the old feather,resting in a pit or follicle of the skin, certain cells group themselves andmultiply until a papilla or feather germ is formed. This pushes out the

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