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Wetmore, Alexander, 1886-, et al. / Warm-blooded vertebrates
(1931)
Chapter II: adaptations for progression by flying , pp. 13-24 ff.
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Page 24
BIRDS was omitted. In the fall they molted into bright plumage without the intervening stage of an eclipse dress. The strange and aberrant forms that feathers may as- sume are mainly ornamental and may be special plumes confined to a single sex. Occasionally the barbs of a feather show little differentiation for more or less of the length of the shaft. This is true of the seemingly waxen red tips of some of the secondaries and rectrices in certain individuals of the cedar and Bohemian waxwings; strange- ly enough the first feathers of the nestling bird may have this peculiarity. Of a similar nature are the broader, hornlike or scalelike feathers seen in the curl-crested toucan (Beauharnaisius beauharnaisi), and in a cuckoo from the Philippines (Lepidogrammus cumingi). Other aberrations include the plumes found in males of many birds of paradise; the aborted head plumes of a helmet bird from Borneo (Pityriasis gymnocephala); the tail of the Reeves pheasant, which may reach six feet in length; and that of the Japanese silky fowl, the feathers in which, by some secret treatment, continue to grow without molt until they attain a length of from twelve to twenty feet. [ 24 ]
Copyright 1931 by Smithsonian Institution Series, Inc.| For information on re-use, see: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Copyright