Quill

“ Whence come the vague to-morrows? Where do the yesters fly?
What is beyond the border of the prairie and the sky?
Does the maid in the Land of Morning sit in the red sunshine,
Broidering her buckskin mantle with the quills of the porcupine? ”

“ A crow-quill will do very well, or even a quill from a hawk; but I like a long one, like this, which came from a heron's wing, nailed up in one of our houses. And he who nailed it up never dreamed of the benefit that a quill from that wing would bring to our good company. ”

“ Wing much rounded, third quill longest, fourth scarcely shorter, but considerably longer than second, first intermediate between sixth and seventh; tail emarginate; upper parts dull olive, the head much darker; quills and tail dusky brown, secondaries and their coverts edged with pale brown; outer tail-feathers whitish on the outer edge, unless toward the tip; lower parts dull yellowish white, the breast tinged with grey. ”

“ Now comes the inconsistency of the moderates. They wear these Quills blindly, because they have not studied birds thoroughly enough to distinguish between plumages except when aided by decided color. The sentence, "It is only a Quill," covers deadly sins of omission. I have cornered several women who are what might be called aggressive Audubonites: "Do you know that the notched Quill in your hat is a pinion of the American Eagle?" ”

“ So that if my quill display no other properties of its mother-goose than her mutability, truly I shall be well pleased; and I conceive that you, my worthy friend, will have no occasion for discontent. From the jargon, therefore, of the Highland gillies I pass to the character of their Chief. It is an important examination, and therefore, like Dogberry, we must spare no wisdom. ”

“ I knotted on to the fine-drawn gut point of my cast a red quill dressed on a cipher hook, and after many attempts, baffled by the wind, to present it just right, a grayling that could plainly be seen in a clear run close under my bank rose to it and was hooked and brought to net, weighing 15 oz. ”

“ There is no more awkward, stupid, guileless creature in the woods than Quill-back, and the only reason why the beasts of prey haven’t wiped out his breed centuries ago is because he is so fiendishly awkward to kill and eat. One spine in the nose means days of agony, a few in the mouth is apt to bring on slow starvation. And when one hunts porcupines, and they escape him, it means simply that the hunter is getting so old and so stiff that the scavengers may dine upon him very soon. In this case Quill-back crept up a tree and crawled out to the end of a limb where Broken Fang couldn’t get him. ”

“ Next the budding quill-feathers attract attention, and if a series of young is being examined, probably the first point to be noted is the fact that the development of the quill feathers of the hand were peculiar inasmuch as in the older forms whilst the inner quills are found to have pushed their way some considerable distance beyond the post-axial border of the wing, the outer quills are only represented by simple down-feathers. Thus, a long, free finger-tip is left beyond the quills. The thumb also, as yet, bears only down-feathers, the future quills being conspicuous by their absence. ”

“ At the upper end of this ornament an eagle's feather is affixed horizontally, the quill end of which is covered with red cloth, and the tip is ornamented with a bunch of horse-hair dyed yellow. The lower white half of the feather is frequently dyed red with vermilion, and the quill covered with dyed porcupine quills. [221] When the Indians are not in their best dress, when they are travelling, or going to the chase, they fasten their long hair in a thick bunch. ”

“ A curious curve is to be remarked in the anterior part of the spread wing, at first backwards towards the tail, and then again forwards towards the head. All the primary quills seem to partake of this shape, and they are also very noticeably disjoined one from another, so that the interspace, even whilst the wing is beaten, looks almost as wide as the quill—by which I mean the whole feather—itself. ”

“ When the quill enters the flesh of an enemy, any muscular movement causes the quill to move forward until it emerges on the opposite side or becomes lodged against the bone or under the hide.
When the porcupine senses danger he raises the quills on his back and has his muscular spine-studded tail in readiness to flip upward. He tries to keep his rear toward the enemy and to push his head into protective brush. The quills are loosely attached to the skin so pull out readily when they stick into anything. ”

“ Once again the chick comes out and walks to a little way from its mother. Having preened itself, it goes back to her, and then flaps its little wings. The quill feathers are growing and look just about an inch long. They are a good deal separated from one another, and have a very feeble appearance. Still, they might serve to make a fall a long fall, which is all that would be required of them to take their owner to the sea. The preening over, the chick, with considerable insistence, burrows once more under its mother's wing, and I now leave, it being all mist and raining into mist. ”

“ When the wind is behind, each stiff quill at the end of the wing stands out by itself and is caught and driven by the blast; but as the bird turns round to face the gale, they all close up and form a continuous mainsail, close-hauled. And all the while the expanded tail is in play, dipping first at one side and then at the other, and turning the trim craft with easy grace "as the governor listeth." ”

“ Now along each broad quill it passes, drawing it out and displaying its elasticity; and now with necks stretched to their full length, and heads elevated, they direct its point in search of the insects that are concealed along their necks and breasts. Now they droop their wings for a while, or stretch them alternately to their full extent; some slowly lie down on the sand, others remain standing, quietly draw their head over their broad shoulders, raise one of their feet, and placing their bill on their back, compose themselves to rest. ”

“ Lower mandible yellow, except at the tip. Body above olivaceous, strongly tinged with ashy towards and on the head. Beneath pale yellowish-brown, darkest on the legs and abdomen, becoming lighter to the bill. An elongated spot of dark plumbeous behind the eye. Inner edges of the quills and under wing-coverts like the belly. Tail-feathers, except the central, black, with a sharply defined tip of white for about an inch, this color not extending along the outer web of the quill. ”

“ A certain infinitesimal amount of quill—torn from the silly goose for no purpose whatsoever but to minister to the high needs of Man.
Here you cry "Affectation! Affectation! How do I know that the fellow writes with a quill? A most unlikely habit!" To that I answer you are right. Less assertion, please, and more humility. I will tell you frankly with what I am writing. I am writing with a Waterman's Ideal Fountain Pen. The nib is of pure gold, as was the throne of Charlemagne, in the "Song of Roland." ”

“ All things being thus prepar'd, tie the Dogs on their sides towards one another so conveniently, that the Quill may go into each other, (for the Dogs necks cannot be brought so near, but that you must put two or three several Quills more into the first two, to convey the bloud from one to another.) After that, unstop the Quill that goes down into the first Dog's Jugular Vein, and the other Quill coming out of the other Dog's Artery ”

“ In the wing the sixth quill is longer than the rest. The entire plumage, except six yellowish white primary quills, is of a glossy black, the eye is dark brown, and the beak black, with a red and yellow spot on its upper mandible. The eye-rings and throat are dark grey, the latter bordered with bright red. The female is smaller than her mate, and has only a comparatively small portion of her neck bare. The length of the male is forty-three inches and a half, and his breadth seventy inches; the wing measures twenty-one inches and three-quarters, and the tail thirteen inches and a half. ”

“ The quill is very liable to split if pushed on too tightly, while, on the other hand, if it is not fixed securely it will drop off, probably whilst doing some important work, and will almost certainly spoil it if it falls off when well charged with colour. The proper way to fix a quill brush is, first of all, to soak the brush well until the quill becomes quite soft. ”

“ They descended into the basement and Quill rang up the curtain on a ragman weighing three big bags of rejection slips.
"My stories all come back," confessed Quill, triumphantly, "and I get three cents a pound for the rejection slips that come with them." ”

“ For the chief use of this, indeed, seems to be for the supply of nourishment to the downy or feathery part of the stem; for ’tis obvious enough in all sorts of Feathers, that ’tis plac’d just under the roots of the branches that grow out of either side of the quill or stalk, and is exactly shap’d according to the ranking of those branches, coming no lower into the quill, then just the beginning of the downy branches, and growing onely on the under side of the quill where those branches do so. ”

“ This was done by perforating the pipe of the quill in two places and running two cords through these holes, and then winding around the quills and the cord, fine thread, to fasten each quill in the place designed for it. These cords extended some length beyond the quills on each side, so that on placing the feathers erect on the head, the cords could be tied together at the back of the head. This would enable the wearer to present a beautiful display of feathers standing erect and extending a distance above the head, and entirely surrounding it. ”

“ Its character was very different from any it was able to earn below the pond and down through the village.
"It's awful clean, though," said Quill, "and there's any amount of trees and bushes along the banks."
"Boys," exclaimed the stranger at last, "I'm going to try one of these shady hollows for a trout. Quill, you take an oar, and paddle me along slowly into that black-looking cove up yonder. I'll show you something new. Mort, you get back into the stern."
"He knows our names," muttered Mort. ”

“ Male.—Entire plumage glossy black, with a greenish lustre, except a spot on the inner web of each primary quill, occupying about the middle third of its length, which is pure white. Bill and feet, black.
Female.—Entire plumage, except the tail, cinereous, tinged with olive on 172 the back and abdomen; superior wing coverts, and inferior tail coverts, edged and tipped with white. Quills, dark-brown—secondaries edged with white; tail, black, without lustre. Young—like the female; but in the males, with the spot on the primaries discernable, though more or less obscure. ”

“ Do not slit the quill up too high, it's a wastrife course in your trade, Andrew—they that do not mind corn-pickles, never come to forpits. I have known a learned man write a thousand pages with one quill. ”

“ The secondary quill feathers of both sexes are white on the outer side. The tail is short and wedge shaped. The legs are excessively thick and powerful, and are colored of a blueish gray, intermingled with whitish streaks. ”

“ Wings long, narrow, a little incurved at the tip, the first quill longest. Tail forked when closed, when spread even in the middle and laterally rounded, of ten broad feathers, the outer curved inwards. ”

“ The upper side of their quill feathers is a dark-blue tinged with black. A streak is formed by feathers nearly of this colour, along the upper parts of the wings, and crossing the back a little above the tail. ”

“ When we are ready to carry our birds home we pull out the four long tail-feathers and knot them together at the tips. Then the quill ends are stuck through the soft part of the lower mandible, and the birds are strung together, eight or ten in a string. ”

“ The country schoolmaster, at the same spring-time, will continue to buy the smallest quills, at a low price, clarify them after his own rude fashion, make them into pens, and sorely spite the boy who splits them up too rapidly. The better quills will still be collected, and find their way to the quill dealer, who will exercise his empirical arts before they pass to the stationer. ”

“ Second quill about as long as the secondaries. Bill much curved; longer than the head. Above olive-brown, with a faint shade of gray; beneath nearly uniform brownish-gray, much paler than the back, passing insensibly into white on the chin; but the under tail-coverts dark brownish-rufous, and abruptly defined. There is a black maxillary stripe cutting off a white one above it. There do not appear to be any other stripes about the head. There are no bands on the wings, and the tips and outer edges of the tail-feathers are very inconspicuously lighter than the remaining portion. ”

“ After a little dickering he sold me bow, arrows, quiver, and all for a couple of dollars. I then ripped open the print and found my first suspicions confirmed; for, underneath, the quiver was of buckskin, beautifully embroidered with red feathers and porcupine {80} quills of deep red and turquoise blue. The Indian was as much puzzled by my preference for the quill work as I was by his for the cotton print.
The standard target for men is four feet across with a nine-inch bull's-eye, and around that four rings, each four and three quarter inches wide. ”