. Bird world : a bird book for children. Birds -- North America Popular works. FEATHERS AND FLIGHT. IF you were swimming, would you spread your fingers apart or close them ? When you have answered this question and thought a little about your reasons, you will understand more easily what I am going to tell you about a bird's feather. The air through which the bird makes its way must be swept aside, just as the water is swept by your closed fingers or by the blade of an oar. If the air could blow through between the wing feathers, the bird could not get ahead. Look now at the strong feather in
. Bird world : a bird book for children. Birds -- North America Popular works. FEATHERS AND FLIGHT. IF you were swimming, would you spread your fingers apart or close them ? When you have answered this question and thought a little about your reasons, you will understand more easily what I am going to tell you about a bird's feather. The air through which the bird makes its way must be swept aside, just as the water is swept by your closed fingers or by the blade of an oar. If the air could blow through between the wing feathers, the bird could not get ahead. Look now at the strong feather in Fig. 32, or, better still, examine a feather itself. You see a shaft running the length of the feather, and from it runs a long row of barbs, as they are called — short, stout ones from the outer side of the shaft, longer, more slender ones from the inner side. Try to separate two of these barbs by stretching out the whole row. Do you see how they hold together ? When you have finally pulled two of them apart, pass the forward one — the one nearer the tip of the feather — under the. Fig. 31. — Contour Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Stickney, J. H. (Jenny H. ), b. 1840; Hoffmann, Ralph, b. 1870; Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946. Boston : Ginn
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Keywords: ., bookauthorhoffmann, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1898
