. St. Nicholas [serial]. of itself. Then the old andworn feathers drop out, and fresh ones growrapidly in their places. This is called molting. If the feathers should fall out of one wingfaster than they did from the other, the birdsflight would be unbalanced. It would be crip-pled, like an aeroplane with only one plane. Or if all the feathers were to fall out of both wingsat once, the engine would be powerless. Thebird could not get its food, and it might fall aprey to its enemies. To prevent this, the birdsengines are repaired in the most wonderful way. The feathers begin to drop from the mi
. St. Nicholas [serial]. of itself. Then the old andworn feathers drop out, and fresh ones growrapidly in their places. This is called molting. If the feathers should fall out of one wingfaster than they did from the other, the birdsflight would be unbalanced. It would be crip-pled, like an aeroplane with only one plane. Or if all the feathers were to fall out of both wingsat once, the engine would be powerless. Thebird could not get its food, and it might fall aprey to its enemies. To prevent this, the birdsengines are repaired in the most wonderful way. The feathers begin to drop from the middle ofthe wing. Only two are lost at a time, and theyare from exactly the same place in each ones at once sprout from the holes left bythe falling feathers. When they are about halfgrown, two more feathers are lost as before, onefrom each wing. These were probably the nextfeathers toward the outer ones. Again, the newones sprout quickly. Now the third pair is the second pair fell from toward the outer-. THF, BOBOLINK IN HIS SPRING SUIT, AND IN HISTRAVELING COSTUME. most ones, the third pair will fall from towardthe body, or innermost ones. So the repair of the engine, or molt of thewings, continues. First a pair from the outerhalf, then a pair from the inner. The process isslow, for it waits on the growth of the new feath-ers. But it never robs the engine of its no time is there more than a pair of feathersmissing from each wing. The wing is, there-fore, always balanced, and the bird can fly dur-ing the entire molt. Usually it is not until the molt is completedand the engine is in perfect order that the birdstarts on its travels; but with some birds, likesnipe, which nest in the far north, the summeris so short that the birds do not seem to haveenough time after nesting to change their clothesbefore they start on their southern these, the feathers of the engine are notrenewed until late fall or winter, and by thefollowing summer they show
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Keywords: ., bookauthordodgemar, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1873
