1. How is the plumage arranged to offer least resistance to the air in flight? How does a bird sit when exposed to the wind?
  2. In a column write the names of the parts of a feather, and opposite each part state its particular use.
  3. Of what use are the hooklets on the barbules?
  4. State and explain the peculiar position of the shaft of the primary feather; of that of a contour feather.
  5. The plumage of many birds contains all stages of feather specialization, from down to pinion. Find as many of them as you can on your specimen.
  6. What reason can you assign for the fluffy base and the compact end of the contour feather?
  7. How much of the feather of a full-grown bird seems to be supplied with blood vessels? How does this bloodless or full-blooded condition affect the weight of the feather; of the plumage; of the bird?
  8. How would the above condition affect the temperature of the blood and of the body? Would it tend to cool the animal or to conserve its heat?
  9. Show how the air lying motionless amongst the plumage may serve the same purpose as that in the packing of a fireless cooker or a "thermos bottle."
  10. How would the above condition affect the growth and repair of the feather? What connection has it with moulting?
  11. What kind of feathers forms most birds' "baby clothes"? What kind forms the adults' "underclothes"?
Suggested drawings.
  1. A typical feather.
  2. A feather of each kind.
  3. A bird with wings outspread, showing positions of feathers.
  4. The minute structure of a feather.

Birds and Migration

To illustrate Distribution

Work in the Laboratory
Materials.

Bird skins or mounted birds, at least one representative of each order and, better still, of each family of the birds which pass through or remain in your neighborhood; specimens in a museum may also be used. Some guide to the identification of birds, as Walter's "Wild Birds in City Parks" or Reed's "Bird Guide." A good diagram of a bird.

Directions.