Tarring and feathering

“ Their feathers grow the wrong way, standing up in a ragged and disorderly fashion; and they, too, have the effect of having been blown about and disarranged, until nature yielded, and agreed to their permanent roughness. ”

“ The growth of the feathers is, however, certainly affected by the general health of the bird, mal-nutrition causing the appearance of peculiar transverse V-shaped grooves, at more or less regular intervals, along the whole length of the feather. ”

“ The lower back is of a deep crimson. The throat flames like an emerald. The tail is the chief feature, the feathers being broad, and greatly lengthened, in regular graduation from the central ones to the outmost pair, which are double the length of the entire bird besides. The form of the tail is widely forked, its outline having a double curve, somewhat lyre-shaped. The tail-coverts are ruddy brown; and the feathers themselves are of the richest and most glowing fire-colour, incomparably lustrous; each feather being broadly tipped with velvety black. ”

“ Look too, at my feathers, they are not the least like to those of a Crane." The Farmer laughed aloud, and said, "It may be all as you say; I only know this, I have taken you with these robbers, the Cranes, and you must die in their company."
Birds of a feather flock together. ”

“ It is also quite common to find one of the long feathers much shorter than the other; which I account for by concluding that the shorter is replacing one that had been accidentally lost. In their aerial encounters with each other, a tail-feather is sometimes displaced. ”

“ The tail which is a lighter grey than the back, is barred transversely with black bands, very narrow towards the bases of the feathers, but widening gradually towards their ends, the tips of which are white. ”

“ Now is your time to whip the feathers with a supple switch, or a light filler of stiff wire, to make each bedraggled feather fluff up at the base of its shaft, and spread its web for all it is worth. This treatment is also vitally necessary to knock the plaster out of the plumage. Work the feathers with your long forceps, lifting them up a bunch at a time and letting them fall back into place. ”

“ The tail is very short, and the middle feather the longest: the others on each side shorten gradually, and are of the colour of the rest of the bird, only somewhat darker: the two shortest or outermost feathers arc perfectly white, which the bird has a faculty of flirting out on either side as quick as a flash of lightning, especially when he hears or sees any thing that disturbs him, uttering at the same instant an extreme harsh and loud shriek. ”

“ But he is often strangled, and when his temerity does not receive this extreme punishment, the feathers which fall from him when he flies away bear witness that he has not emerged unscathed from the scuffle. ”

“ At the close of this discipline, which left him more exhausted than twenty battles, his enemies suddenly developed wings from their shoulders, the feathers of which were of white and gold and vermilion, every feather having an eye in it, not like those in the peacock's feathers, but one full of life and motion, being a female eye, lovely and gracious. ”

“ The beautiful, soft, whitish bloom seen on some birds' feathers, such as the pale gray of a male marsh hawk and filmy appearance of some herons' plumage, is caused by specialized feathers called "powder down." Sometimes this powder down is scattered through the plumage; sometimes it is in patches, such as the particularly conspicuous ones in the herons. The tips of the powder down are continually breaking off and sifting over the rest of the plumage, giving it the bloom that with handling quickly rubs off. ”

“ In their winter dress the sexes very nearly resemble each other; but the males may always be distinguished by the black colouring of the bill and tail-feathers. The young male of the year has the tail-feathers brown, like the females, and it is a curious fact, that at this age these feathers are much longer than in the adult. ”

“ Tail in young of first year, rounded; in second year, slightly rounded; in third year slightly emarginate, feathers becoming more acute. In adult, forked, outer feathers three-eighths of an inch longer than inner. ”

“ When standing close to them during these struggles they have sometimes fallen within a few feet of me, and as they tumble, locked together, through the air, twisting slowly round and round, they look like a mass of feathers devoid of all form; upon reaching the ground they lie for a few seconds exhausted or surprised, then fly quietly away, each in his own direction. ”

“ The tail of the male is imperfect, the bird being in moult, but the longest existing feather is one of the uropygials and is an old feather, and the short outermost feathers are nearly half inch shorter than the corresponding ones in the female. ”

“ The blood dries up when the feather has unfolded to its full size, leaving it light and dry, with a horny part at the root that sticks in the hole where it grew, and a spray-like part that makes up most of the feather. ”

“ On the other hand, the truest feathers—that is to say, those which exhibit the essential features of a feather in the most marked manner—are specially connected with the act of flight. The general surface of the body is covered with soft down, among which sprout the delicate plumes that form the common covering for warmth and protection; but only on the wings and tail do those long and stiff quills appear which, after all, are the feathers par excellence, the models and prototypes of all the rest. ”

“ But now this is what I want you to notice and think about: that just as an apple falls according to a great law of Nature, so a bird’s feathers fall according to a law of Nature. The moon is appointed for seasons; the sun knoweth his going down; and so light and insignificant a thing as a bird’s feather not only is appointed to grow in a certain place at a certain time, but also knoweth its falling off.
Nothing could look more haphazard, certainly, than the way a hen’s feathers seem to drop off at moulting time. The most forlorn, undone, abject creature about the farm is the half-moulted hen. ”

“ They starve. That is what they do, and that is what the women with the frozen hearts, who wear these feathers, know that they do—for they have been told so, now, often enough. Is it not terrible? For those pure, white, beautiful feathers, not only have the grown birds been killed, but the young ones—their children—have starved—starved slowly—in the nest where they were born. ”

“ When the males thus collect together they spread their tails, raise the feathers on their backs and heads, and scold one another vigorously, often moving from place to place. As many as four will sometimes collect round one female, and their antics are then most ludicrous, all of them being in a state of excitement, spreading and flirting their tails. One will, perhaps, warble and imitate other species, another will twist and turn about on a branch, frequently hanging head downwards, and while doing so twisting his head upwards in a grotesque manner. ”

“ Tiny tail feathers with white tips showed distinctly, and it was evident that they were fast growing up. The mother plainly accepted the fact, for she made no further effort to sit upon them.
As the day wore on the wind increased to a gale, and my anxiety kept pace with its violence. Surely no August babies could be prepared for such November weather. Would a fall kill the delicate birdlings? Should I have to rescue them? Hardly five minutes at a time did I take my eyes off the nest, tossed on its long swaying branch like a ship in the maddest sea. ”

“ In general, the male is larger and more gaily coloured than the female; and he is frequently distinguished by some peculiar development of the tail or its coverts. The tail in this Order has more than the ordinary number of feathers, having from fourteen to eighteen. The species, though inoffensive towards other animals, are irritable and pugnacious between themselves; the males of several species fighting with a determined pertinacity that frequently yields only to death. ”

“ His enormously long tail feathers are so fantastic, so almost grotesque! They render him a kind of monstrosity. One feels as if he had been made, not born; and some Oriental must have been the maker.
Yet if ever a bird was alive, he is. His spirits are effervescent and apparently inexhaustible. Few birds are noisier or more continually on the move. When six or eight scissor-tails meet for consultation in one small tree, even though it be in a cemetery, there are “great doings,” as the country phrase is. ”

“ It has, moreover, nothing to live on and plenty of it; and this diet affects its physique, inasmuch as it prevents the increase of flesh, while the constant evasion of death develops its muscles — the thigh-bones assuming vulturine dimensions. The feathers, by frequent escapings through small holes, become ragged and irregular; the tail is systematically discarded as being dangerous and a handle to ill-wishers. ”

“ Once or twice in the course of a year the whole plumage of the bird is renewed, the casting of the old feathers being called moulting. The base of the quills is covered by a series of large feathers, called the wing coverts; and the feathers of the tail are furnished with numerous muscles, by which they can be spread out and folded up like a fan. In the aquatic birds—like the goose, the duck, and the swan—the feathers are constantly lubricated by an oily secretion, which completely excludes the water. ”

“ The bills are covered at the base with downy or velvety feathers, which extend over the nostrils: their wings are long and round; the tail consists of ten feathers, two of them, in some species, very long; legs and feet very long, large, and strong; outer toe longer than inner, and joined to the middle one toward the base; hind-toe very long; claws long and curved. But they are chiefly remarkable for the wonderful development of various parts of their plumage, and for the metallic splendor of its rich hues. ”

“ The tail feathers are the last to come to full length, and you will notice that most birds just out of the nest have very dumpy tails.
A bird's first suit of feathers is called his nestling plumage. In some families it is just like the dress of the grown-up birds, but in others it is not at all like that. It is usually worn only a few weeks, for the young one outgrows it, and needs a new and bigger one before winter.
When a bird is fully dressed, his body is entirely covered, and it looks as if the feathers grew close to each other all over him. ”

“ For the lighter one I recommend the hen pheasant's or brown owl's wing feather, dubbed with hare's ear and yellow silk; for the dark, the tail feather of a partridge, a brown red hackle underneath the wings, and dark orange silk, or a woodcock's feather for wings, and a dark red hackle with dark orange silk,—kills exceedingly well. When the water is low and fine, I consider your chance of killing fish far greater with two, than three of the large spring flies. ”

“ It is not till the end of July or the beginning of August that the adult plumage begins to show itself, and then the young birds present a singular appearance, as the glossy black feathers, tipped with pearl, appear in irregular patches on various parts of the body. Starlings do not usually roost near the scene of their depredations, but from this season and thence until late in autumn they repair, as if by some preconcerted scheme, to a rendezvous common to many detachments. ”

“ I was told of several men who had made considerable fortunes in this way. The practice was particularly cruel, as the most valuable feathers only grow during the mating season, the massacre of the birds thus tending rapidly to wipe out the whole species. ”

“ They are as motionless and apparently lifeless as if they had been mummified or petrified for a thousand years. Their mottled back and rusty feathers, their heads drawn down and eyes almost closed, make them look like uncanny visitants from beyond the Styx. ”

“ Its feathers are so thick and close that they easily turn aside ordinary shot. Its bill is long and sharp, and with it in battle can inflict a most ugly wound. The feathers on its breast are of snowy whiteness, while on the rest of the body they are of a dark brown colour approaching to black flecked with white. Its peculiar legs are wide and thin; its webbed feet are so large that it can swim with amazing rapidity. ”

“ Powder-down feathers are degenerate down-feathers which appear to secrete a dry, waxy kind of powder. This powder rapidly disintegrates and becomes distributed over the plumage, adding thereto a quite peculiar bloom. In birds of the heron tribe powder-down feathers have reached a high degree of development, forming large patches in the breast and thighs, while in some hawks, and in the parrots, these mysterious feathers are scattered singly over the greater part of the body.
The nature of the covering of nestling birds is of a more complex character than has hitherto been suspected. ”

“ Black covering forehead, ear-coverts, cheeks, chin, throat, foreneck, and under parts generally (except the tarsi, inside and front of tibiæ, and lower tail-coverts, which are light fulvous, the tarsi palest) , more tawny than in the male. The lanceolate, pale, tawny feathers, which in the male cover only the occiput and neck, in the female extend forward over the top of the head, leaving the forehead only blackish. Upper parts and tail as in the male. ”

“ Seizing hold of one another by the feathers of the head, they roll from side to side, and then, without relaxing their grip, lie exhausted—the quickened heart-beat, altered respiration, tightly compressed feathers and partially expanded wings betraying the intensity of the conflict. ”