A splendid young blackbird built in a tree;
A spruce little fellow as ever could be;
His bill was so yellow, his feathers so black,
So long was his tail, and so glossy his back,
That good Mrs. B., who sat hatching her eggs,
And only just left them to stretch her poor legs,
And pick for a minute the worm she preferred,
Thought there never was seen such a beautiful bird.
--_D. M. Mulock._
Oh! Nature's noblest gift--my gray-goose quill!
Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will,
Torn from thy parent bird to form a pen,
The mighty instrument of little men!
--_Byron._
Feathers have played an important part in the history of mankind. Henry
of Navarre won the battle of Ivry after electrifying his men with the
following words: "Fellow soldiers, you are Frenchmen; behold the enemy!
If you lose sight of your ensigns, rally round my plume; you will
always find it on the high road to honor!"
No doubt the templars carried the hearts of many with them in the
crusades more effectually because their waving plumes gave them a
picturesqueness which inspired brave men with courage and pious ones
with holy zeal.
Savages delight in adorning themselves with feathers, and civilized
women have found their charms enhanced by the placing of feathers
against fair skins until the close of the nineteenth century finds a
social struggle raging through fear that the demands of fashion may yet
destroy from the face of the earth its sweetest songsters and its most
beautifully plumed creatures.
Fans of feathers are admired the world over. In warm countries huge
fans or screens made of beautiful feathers are often carried to
shade royalty. In great processions the Pope is followed by bearers
of magnificent fans of ostrich plumes. In the Sandwich Islands for
a long time the enthroning of a new king was made gorgeous by his
wearing a garment of many thousands of feathers; but recently, as if in
preparation for a union with the United States, this state garment was
buried with the king and the ceremony became simpler.
The noblest use to which feathers have been adapted has been in
the production of writing instruments. The antiquity of the pen,
regarded as a feather, is shown in the proof recently set forth by
the philologists. _Penna_ is the Latin for feather; farther back an
instrument for flying is called _patna_; the Sanskrit which became
_penna_ in the Latin tongue became _phathra_ in the mouths of the
Teutonic peoples. So the English language, which is formed from both
Latin and Teutonic elements, possesses two words, _pen_, and _feather_,
which were one in their origin, have been widely separated during
the ages, and now are united, but in such a way that only under the
microscope of comparative grammar are we able to discover that they
have the same blood in their veins.
Although the people living in warm countries wrote with the reed, the
Chinese with a brush, and we have learned to fashion steel so it will
do the work to better advantage, yet the feather has been a mighty
agency in the civilization of the world.
Every teacher used to consider it one of the essentials of his
equipment to possess a good penknife and know how to use it in making
or mending pens for his pupils. Quills were first carefully cleansed
from all oily or fatty matter and then dried. A gentle heat was applied
to secure the brittleness which made it possible to split the pen point
without spoiling the quill.
In Russia and in Holland quills were dipped in boiling alum-water or
diluted nitric acid and then dried and clarified in a bath of hot sand.
Goose quills were most used, turkey quills were prized by many, and
swan quills were considered the best of all. Pens well made from swan
quills often sold as high as four guineas a thousand, while goose quill
pens were to be had at twenty shillings. For fine writing, crow-quills
were considered best, and pen-and-ink drawings were generally produced
with the black-plumed article.
In 1832, to supplement the domestic products in the manufacture of
pens, 33,668,000 quills were imported into England. The trade has not
been entirely killed by the advent of the steel pen, for there are yet
among us representatives of the people of the olden time who delight in
the pretty little squeak of the quill pen as it assists them in their
literary labors.
Man early learned to rob the birds of their coverings, not only for
adornment, but also for warmth. Feather beds were once reckoned as
evidences of wealth. Modern science has pointed out the unhealthful
condition of a bed made soft and gaseous with feathers. Few beds are
now found of this sort among the better-informed people of America, but
the traveler in the northern countries of Europe not only has to sleep
on feathers but also under them. The down coverlet is as essential to a
Danish bed as is clean linen.
The newest palace of the German emperor is furnished in accordance with
the Teutonic idea, and the visitor to the palace at Strasburg, when his
majesty is not there, is shown his royal bed room with its single bed
and double featherings.
Downy feathers grow most abundantly on birds inhabiting cold regions.
Many young birds have an abundance of downy feathers when first
hatched. In some cases it is well formed before the egg is broken,
firmly enclosed in a tight roll of membrane to keep it dry. On exposure
to the air the membrane bursts and the down wraps the nestling in a
comfortable coat.
The stronger feather sometimes grows out of the same place as the downy
one in such a way that it pushes out the down to the outside of the
plumage and the bird appears to have his underwear outside his overcoat.
The best eider-down is so light that three-quarters of an ounce of it
will fill a large hat. It is so elastic that two or three pounds may be
compressed into a ball that may be held in the hand.
Some feathers have a second shaft growing out of the end of the quill
so as to form a double feather, and in rare instances there are two of
these growths from one quill, making a triple feather.
Birds are warmer blooded than other animals. What is a dangerous fever
temperature in the blood of man, is natural and ordinary in a bird.
As birds fly rapidly, they could not live if they were perspiring
creatures because they would lose heat so fast. Feathers protect them
from the sudden changes of temperature and loss of heat and strength.
Feathers are important to the bird to fly with; but even for this
purpose they are not absolutely necessary. There are forms of animals
that fly, as the bat does, with their skin to beat the air. There were
once on the earth many more skin-flying animals than there are to-day.
Feathers are modifications of the scarf-skin. Wherever the skin is
exposed to sun, wind, or water it is modified in some way to contribute
to the well-being of the animal. The many forms of feathers make a most
fascinating study.
A peculiar thing about them is that they are not vascular. Vascular
means full of vessels. Almost everything that grows is vascular. It has
tubes to carry in new material and little sacs or large ones to store
substance for new growths. But dermal appendages, the forms that grow
out of the scarf-skin and are modifications of it, are not vascular.
Take a feather two feet long, and examine it to see how the feather
material was carried from the beginning of the quill to the tip. You
find no veins and no circulation. Yet feathers grow and their growth is
quite mysterious and not understood by the wisest people.
The material of a feather consists of cells that push each other out
to their destination. They change their forms as they travel along,
and their colors and degrees of hardness change with their going. They
are composed of about the same stuff that makes horns and hoofs. Your
finger nail is like a feather in its growth and composition. It is
mostly albumen with some lime in it. Albumen is the substance which
makes the white of eggs.
When the Mexican motmot trims his two tail feathers with his beak,
he merely makes diamond cut diamond. The material of the cutting
instrument is the same as that of the thing cut, only somewhat harder.
When you consider how a feather grows by pushing out its cells you
must wonder at the intelligence which guides the cells to change their
nature so as to form the quill, the shaft, the after-shaft, the barb,
the barbules, and the little hooks which hold them together. More than
this is the cause for admiration seen in the regular change of pigment
contained in the cells, so the feather shall have its beautiful colors
and accurate markings.
Along with the materials of the feather is carried a little oil which
turns the water from the duck's back and gives the feather its gloss.
It is thought by some that the fading of feathers in museums where
mounted specimens are exposed to the action of light is largely due
to the loss of this delicate oil. No enterprising Yankee has come
forward yet with a patent for restoring this oil and giving back to
the thousands of musty and dusty skins in our museums their original
brilliancy.
Every one wonders at the way feathers keep their shape instead of
getting hopelessly ruffled. The little hooks which hold the barbules
together are exceedingly strong and flexible. They will yield and bend,
but never break. Even when torn apart from their hold they can grasp
again so as to restore the injured feather to its former shape.