feateoust

[Cf. featous, fetuous, later forms of ME. fetous, fet is: see feat2, a.] Same as fea to us. feather what like hairs, in a little pit or pouch formed by an inversion of the dermal of the integument, a closed follicle, upon a peculiarly molded papilla, which causes the feather to a ume its special shape. They are seldom implanted uniformly over the surface, but grow in special tracts or areas separated by naked spaces. (See pteryla, apterium.) All of a bird's feathers collectively considered constitute the plumage or ptilosis. (See cut under bird1.) A perfect feather consists of a main stem, shaft, or scape; a supplementary stem, aftershaft, or hypo rachis; and vanes, webs, or vexilla: these together making the stan dard. The scape is divided into two parts: one, nearest the body of the bird, is the barrel, quill, or calamus, a hard, horny, hollow, semi-transparent tube with one end inserted in the skin; it bears no webs, and pa es insensibly at a point marked by a little pit ( umbilicus ) into the shaft proper or rachis. This is squarish in section, tapers to a fine point, is highly elastic, opaque, and solidly filled with dry pith; it bears the vexilla. The aftershaft is usually like a miniature of the main feather, springing from the stem of the latter at the junction of the calamus and rachis. (See aftershaft.) With its vanes it is called the hypoptilum. Sometimes it is as large as the main feather. There are two vanes, on opposite sides of the rachis. Each vane consists of a series of mutually appre ed, thin, flat, linear or lance linear plates, the barbs, set off obliquely from the rachis by their basal ends at a varying open angle. (See cut under barbl.) To cause these plates to cohere with one another, and make a webbing of the vane, each barb bears secondary vanes; these are barbules, and bear to the barbs the same relation that the barbs bear to the rachis. Barbules are also fringed, as if frayed out, along their lower edges; each such fringe makes a tertiary vane. When these vanes are simple, they are termed barbicels; when hooked, hooklets or hamuli. (See cut under barbule.) From such perfect structure feathers may be reduced in various ways, even to lacking everything but the shaft; when this is very thick, feathers become much like scales, as in the penguin; when it is fine, they resemble hairs or bristles. In general, three types of feather-structure are recognized: (1) The perfectly feathery, plumous or pennaceous, structure. The goose quill used as a pen is a good example (though it lacks an aftershaft). Most contour-feathers are pennaceous. (2) The downy or plumulaceous, such as makes up the under-plumage or down. (3) The filo plum a ceo us, which approaches a bristle or hair. (See cut under filoplume.) But there is no strict line of demarcation, and in fact most feathers are pennaceous with plumulaceous bases of the webs. Feathers are also cla ified as (1) pennæ, plum a, or contour-feathers; (2) plumulæ, or down-feathers; (3) semiplumæ, or half-feathers; (4) filoplumæ, or thread feathers; and (5) pulviplumæ, dust-feathers, or powder down. (See phrases below.) The acquisition of feathers is called endysis; their lo , ecdysis. Birds which acquire feathers in the egg are Præcoces or Ptilopædes; those which are hatched naked are Altrices, Psilopædes, or Gymnopædes. Feathers are of extremely rapid growth. They are of many shapes, often remarkable, and of every po ible color. The color is usually due to actual pigmentation, but in many cases to iridescence. The optical effect of iridescence is due to the texture of the webs. Among all epidermal structures, feathers probably combine in the highest degree the qualities of lightne , strength, and elasticity. They are also very warm, and in many cases water-proof. He hat he a Crest of Fedres upon his Hed more gret than the Poocok hat he. Mandeville, Travels, p. 48. All byrdes doe loue by kynde, that are lyke of plume and feather , Good and bad, ye wyld and tame, all kyndes doe draw to- gyther. Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), p. 89. With the feathers of these wings the muses made them- selves crowns, so that from this time the muses wore wings on their heads. Bacon , Moral Fables, vi. 2. Something in the form of a feather, or re- sembling nearly or remotely the standard of a feather; something made of feathers. The bents And coarser gra . now shine Conspicuous, and in bright apparel clad, And, fledg'd with icy feathers , nod superb. Cowper , Task, v. 26. Specifically- (a) A plume. (b) In founding , a thin rib cast on iron framing to strengthen it and resist bending or frac- ture. (c) A slip inserted longitudinally into a shaft or arbor, and projecting so as to fit a groove in the eye of a wheel. feateouslyt, adv . Same as featously . feather (ferH'er), n. [Early mod. E. also fether ; a projf two pieces of metal placed fether , sometimes feder , fether , a feather, a pen, in pl. often wings (deriv. fit here , a wing), = OS. fethera = D. veder = OHG. fedara , MHG. vedere , veder , G. feder , a feather, a pen, = Icel. fjödhr = Sw. fjäder = ODan. feder , fejr , fiœ- in a hole in a stone which is to be split, a wedge-shaped key or plug being driven between them for this purpose. (e) In joinery, a projection on the edge of a board which fits into a channel on the edge of another board, in the ing and feathering, or grooving and tonguing, as it is more commonly called. (f) On a horse, a sort of natural frizzling of the hair, which in some places rises above the smooth thær, feyre, Dan. fjeder , fjer (= Goth. * fithra , not operation of joining boards by groov- recorded), feather, = Gr. πτερόν (for * πετερόν ), α feather, a wing (cf. πτέρυξ, a wing, πτίλον (for *πετίλον), feather, down), = L. penna , OL. pesna (for * petna , with different suffix -na ), a feather, a pen (whence E. pen2 ), = OBulg. Bulg. Slov. Serv. pero = Bohem. péro = Pol. pioro , feather (OBulg. pirati , prat i , fly), = Skt. pattra , a fea- wing, leaf, patatra , a wing, cf. patara , a., ✓ pat , fly, descend, fall, = Gr. πέτε ther, wi flying, Chaucer , Squire's Tale, 1. 273. feat1 (fēt), n. [ fect , fete , faite , deed, fact, matter, OF. (and F.) fait , deed, fact, fac- stance, and subject to periodical molt. They grow some Feather, def. 2 (d). coat, and makes a figure resembling the tip of an ear of wheat. (7) A foamy spray of water thrown up and backward on each side of the cutwater of a swiftly moving ve el, or from the edge of an oar when turned horizontally. See feather -spray. (h) The fringe of hair on the back of the legs, on the neck, or on the ears ears of some breeds of dogs, as setters. Also feathering. (1) In precious stones, an irregular flaw. See the extract. In natural rubies the cavities are always angular or crystalline in outline, and are usually filled with some liquid, or, if they form part of a feather, as it is called by the jewelers, they are often arranged with the lines of growth. Sci. Amer., N. S., LVIII. 3. The feathered end or string-end of an arrow. -4. Kind; nature; species: from the proverbial phrase "birds of a feather"-that is, of the same species. IMG:content-1157.png:[blocks in formation] For both of you are birds of self-same feather . Shak ., 3 Hen. VI., iii. 3. 5. In sporting, birds collectively; fowls: as, fur, fin, and feather. He [the Scotch terrier] may be induced to hunt feather; he never takes to it like fur, and prefers vermin to game Dogs of Great Britain and America, p. 72. at all times. 6. Among confectioners, one of the degrees in 2164 They stuck not to say, that the king cared not to plume his nobility and people, to feather himself. Bacon , Hist. Hen. VII., p. 111. 3. To fit with a feather or feathers, as an arrow. He hath plucked her doves and sparrows, To feather his sharp arrows. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 1. Nonsense, feathered with soft and delicate phrases, and pointed with pathetick accents. Dr. Scott , Works (1718), II. 124. lowed by the ball. After pa ing the degree of feather , sugar is inclined to Workshop Receipts , 2d ser., p. 152. grain or candy. Thus oft it haps that, when within They shrink at sense of secret sin, A feather daunts the brave. Scott , Marmion, iii. 14. A sort of feather to ed about by whatever breeze hap- pens to blow-a straw on the current of things! W. M. Baker, New Timothy, p. 95. 8. In rowing, the act of feathering. See feather, v. t., 6.- A feather in one's cap, an honor or mark of distinction: said of something striking or unexpected that brings credit or attracts favorable notice. Auricular feathers. See auricular. - Axillary feathers. See axillar, n.-Birds of a feather. See bird1. - Capillary feather, a filoplume or hair-feather. Contour feather. See contour - feather. Covert-feather, any feather of the wing or tail-coverts. See covert, n., 6.- Deck-feather, one of the pair of middle tail-feathers which overlie the rest when the tail is closed, and are often conspicuously different from them in size, shape, or color. - Down feather. See down-feather. - Dust-feather, a pulvi. plume; one of certain peculiar down-feathers of a dusty, scurfy, or greasy character, occurring in patches in some birds, especially herons. - Feather oil-gland, the uropygial gland, or elæodochon. See elœodochon. - Feather tract, a pteryla. - Flight-feather, one of the large quill. feathers which form most of the extent of a bird's wing and which are e ential to flight; a quill of the wing; a rowing-feather; a remex. (See remex.) The goose-quill for writing is a flight-feather. Flight-feathers are divided into primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries or tertials, ac cording to their sites on the wing. See cut under bird1. Hair-feather, a filoplume or thread-feather.-Half-feather, a semiplume, in structure intermediate between a plume and a plumula. See def. 1. In full feather, not molting; in full plumage; figuratively, well supplied with money. In high feather, in high spirits; elated. I have seen him, though in high feather and high talk when in a sunny chamber, transferred to himbadli lighted room, withdraw in a corner by himself in moody silence. Actors and Actre es, I. 206. Metallic feather, a feather with a metallic glo , sheen, or glitter; an iridescent feather. Some of them, as in humming-birds, etc., are often described as metal lic scales.-Pennaceous, plum a ceo us, plumulaceous feather. See def. 1.-Pin-feather, an ungrown feather, before the vanes have expanded, and while the barrel is filled with a dark bloody or serous fluid. In the later stage the future webs may be seen sprouting from the end of the quill like a pencil or brush. - Powder-down feather, a pulviplume or dust-feather. Prince of Wales's feathers, the crest of the Prince of Wales, consisting of three ostrich-plumes, with the motto Ich dien (I serve). It was first borne by Edward the Black Prince. -Quill-feather, a large pennaceous feather with a stout barrel or quill, which is or may be used for writing; a quill. The large flight and rudder-feathers of the wings and tail are of this kind.-Rowing-feather, a flight feather or remex. - Rudder-feather, a quill-feather of the tail, which steers a bird's flight; a rectrix. -Thread feather, a feather of filo plum a ceo us structure; filo plume. To cut a feather. See cut. To drive fea thers. See drive. - White feather, the symbol of cowardice: a phrase introduced in the days when cock-fighting was in repute. As the game-cock of the strain in vogue had no white feathers, a white feather was taken as a proof that a bird was not game. Generally used in such phrases as to show the white feather, to have a white feather in one's wing, meaning to show cowardice, to behave like a coward. "He has a white feather in his wing this same West burn flat after a'," said Simon of Hackburn, somewhat scandalized by his ready surrender. "He'll ne'er fill his father's boots." Scott , Black Dwarf, ix.