Use Of Feathers Research Articles

Use and importance of feathers as nest lining in tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor)

Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) commonly line their grass nests with feath- ers of other species. In one of three years studied, there was a significant negative correlation between numbers of feathers in the nest and chick nestling periods (i.e. broods surrounded by more feathers fledged earlier). In the third year of the study, the population was divided into two groups, balanced for all measurable aspects of parental quality. In the group, all feathers were removed daily and in the control group all feathers were allowed to remain. All nests and their contents were disturbed equally. Chicks in removal nests had lower growth rates (in mass, wing chord and tarsus) and higher infestations of mites and lice. I suggest that feathers aid chicks directly by preventing hypothermia and indirectly through higher growth rates by allowing earlier fledging when necessary. Protection from ectoparasites may be an important advantage in natural nests where nest cavities are not cleaned out annually. Inadvertent removal of feathers from nest boxes may be an important cause of posthatching declines in feather numbers. Received 19 July 1991, accepted 14 August 1992. TREE SWALLOWS (Tachycineta bicolor) usually line their nests with feathers, and one of the most conspicuous and distinctive behaviors during this swallow's breeding season is the frequent contests over feathers. These contests involve high-speed aerial chases accompanied by considerable aerial jostling and bodily con- tact, often involving several birds (e.g. Wey- demeyer 1934, Kuerzi 1941; for an illustration see Audubon (Peterson and Peterson 1981:plate 276)). Having been intrigued by these aerial contests and the apparent worth of the resource being contested, I began a study of the feathers used in Tree Swallow nests in 1987. I present here a brief description of the natural history of the use of feathers as nest lining, some cor- relative evidence of the feathers' importance, and the results of an experimental study doc- umenting the effect of feathers in the nest on chick growth and ectoparasite infestations. The nest linings of birds generally have been thought to provide insulation for the devel- oping offspring (e.g. Haftorn 1978, Capreol 1983, Moller 1984) or protection against ectoparasites (e.g. Wireberger 1984), and my experiment test- ed the two predictions that feather relnoval would lead to: (1) decreased chick growth and/ or survival; and (2) increased numbers of ec- toparasites. METHODS

Trace element distribution in growing feathers: additional excretion in feather sheaths.

The use of feathers is a non-invasive and repeatable method for biomonitoring trace element levels in birds and their ecosystems. Trace element levels were examined in different parts of growing flight feathers from young common terns (Sterna hirundo) to determine distribution of heavy metals and selenium, potential bias from using partially grown feathers, and whether additional heavy metals and selenium are excreted in feather sheaths that are sloughed before feathers are usually sampled. Lead and mercury levels were significantly higher in the distal fully formed portion of the growing feather (with no residual blood supply) compared to the proximal, growing portion of the feather with a residual blood supply, but no significant differences were evident for cadmium and selenium. These results suggest that using partially grown feathers underestimates the amount of lead and mercury in fully formed feathers and that higher levels of lead and mercury are sequestered in feathers than are present in the blood at any one time. Significantly higher concentrations of lead and cadmium, and significantly lower levels of mercury were in the sheath compared to the whole feather blade. These data suggest that birds excrete more lead and cadmium during molt than previously thought.

Trade and the conservation status of the family Psittacidae in Venezuela

SummaryAn assessment of trade in parrots throughout Venezuela, 1988–1989, reveals alarmingly high internal and international levels. The national trade has main outlets in major cities, but is now compounded by the use of feathers for Indian artifacts sold to tourists. International trade involves illegal export chiefly from the Orinoco Delta, the majority of such birds (65,000–75,000) destined for Guyana. The large macaws suffer badly from both types of trade, but owing to its restricted range the endemic Amazona barbadensis is perhaps the most critically threatened species. Other species are assessed and, along with key sites, identified in priority order for remedial action, which should include more detailed field studies, rigorous trade data analysis, exchange of trade data with major neighbours, census and monitoring technique improvements, educational campaigns, and strict breeding facility control.

Effects of color on cadmium and lead levels in avian contour feathers

The use of feathers has been proposed as a noninvasive tissue for biomonitoring metal levels in birds and their ecosystems. We examined cadmium and lead levels in black and white contour feathers from common (Sterna hirundo) and sooty (S. fuscata) terns, and black skimmers (Rynchops niger) to determine if there were significant differences in metal levels related to the melanin content of the feathers. There were no significant differences in metals in black versus white body feathers in any of the three species; correlations between metal residues from individual birds were low.

Mercury in feathers of Swedish gyrfalcons, Falco rusticolus, in relation to diet.

The gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) is mainly a resident bird breeding in mountain areas in Fennoscandia. The population (estimated to 300-500 pairs) probably fluctuates according to the presence of willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus) and ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus). Little is known about pollutant levels in Fennoscandian gyrfalcons. Previous studies found low levels of DDE, PCB and mercury in organs from six Norwegian gyrfalcons. In this paper the author has included additional information on mercury levels, based on feather analyses from a few nests in northern Sweden. The use of feathers is a simple method to monitor mercury levels without sacrificing the birds. Food habits were checked by analyzing food remains at and near the nests.

On the Use of Feathers in Birds' Nests: Predictions and Tests

On the Use of Feathers in Birds' Nests: Predictions and Tests

Native American Culture: The Use of Feathers as a Protected Right

Native American Culture: The Use of Feathers as a Protected Right

The use of feather and offal meal to replace mainly soyabean meal in a fishmeal-free basal diet for caged layers and the effect of the addition of methionine to the basal diet.

AbstractAn experiment is described in which feather and offal meal was used at levels of 0, 2.6, 5.2 and 7.8 and 10.4% to replace soyabean meal and at a level of 14.0% to replace both soyabean meal and meal and bone meal in a non‐fish meal containing control diet fed to light hybrid caged layers.Replacement of the soyabean meal by feather and offal meal did not adversely affect total or mean egg weight up to the 7.8% level of addition. The efficiency of utilisation of metabolisable energy (ME) for egg production was adversely affected at the higher levels of addition.The addition of 0.07% DL‐methionine to the control diet resulted in a statistically significant improvement in percentage production, total egg weight and efficiency of ME utilisation.Mould growth occurred in stored feather and offal meal when the dry matter content was below about 90%.The proximate, Ca, P and amino‐acid analyses of the feather and offal meal are presented.

Use of Feathers in a Gel Precipitation Test for Marek’s Disease

THE skin was first described as being involved in Marek’s disease (MD) by Helmbolt et al. (1963). Since then, evidence has indicated this organ’s role in the transmission and pathogenesis of the disease. Beasley (1970) has transmitted MD with dander from MD infected chickens. Herpes type particles have been observed (Clanek, 1970; Nazerian and Witter, 1970) and infectious cell free extracts have been recovered (Calnek, 1970; Nazerian and Witter, 1970; Purchase, 1970) from the cutaneous follicular epithelium of MD infected chickens. Lapen et al. (1970), Calnek and Hitchner (1969) and Purchase (1970) have observed an immunofluorescent (IF) antigen associated with MD in the cutaneous follicular epithelium of MD infected fowl. Lapen et al. (1970) described Cowdry type A intranuclear inclusions in this epithelium and demonstrated they were part of the MD process.These observations suggested that the feather and associated follicular epithelium may contain sufficient MD associated antigen which could…

Briefer Notices

BRIEFER NOTICES By Henry J. Cadbury In Greater Philadelphia: The Magazine for Executives, Vol. V, No. 2 (February 1964), pp. 40-41, 115-119, Ruth Malone writes on "Quaker Quandary." Using as text the town of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, she expounds to the nonQuaker public some of the paradox of inheritance and response in modem Quakerism . * * * The latest Ward Lecture differs from its predecessors in being a biographical summary about one Friend, a graduate of Guilford College and the worthy champion of the conservation of wild life (1882-1943), Thomas Gilbert Pearson: Untiring Protector of Birds, by M. Albert Linton (Guilford College, 1964, 27 pages). He was especially active in the campaign against the use of feathers in women's hats, and in the later campaigns of Audubon Societies. * * * There has never been a full biography of William Bradford (1663-1752). The nearest thing to it was John William Wallace's address on the bicentennial of his birth. Now, another hundred years later, we have an inclusive essay in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, Vol. LXXIII, Part 2 (1964), pp. 361-384, by Andrew J. Wall, Jr., "William Bradford, Colonial Printer: A Tercentenary Review." A Quaker apprentice and son-in-law of Andrew Sowie, the London Quaker printer, Bradford settled near Philadelphia about 1685. Here he soon lost the Quaker patronage when he espoused the cause of George Keith. He moved to New York and to the Church of England, and became official printer for the colonies of New York, New Jersey, and Barbados. His long life was marked with difficulties and conflicts until he retired at the age of eighty-one. His pioneering as a printer in date and in scope makes him important. We had lately occasion to refer to articles on two of his scarcest imprints. See Vol. LII, 115 f., Vol. LIII, 57-58. * * * Two of the Papers published by the Monthly Meeting on the occasion of the formal opening of the Meetinghouse and Friends Center, Montreal, April 25 and 26, 1964, are historical: The Story of Montreal Meeting, 1929-1964, by W. Lloyd G. Williams; Friends in the Eastern Townships (condensed from this Bulletin, L 67-81), by S. A. Zielinski. * * * Not merely a passing alumni publication but based on a doctoral dissertation in history is the article by Dr. Homer D. Babbidge, Jr., himself a University President, "Are the First Hundred Years the Hardest?" in the Swarthmore College Bulletin, April 1964, pp. 13-17, 20. It deals with the tensions between coeducation and equal but separate education of the sexes and between the aims of academic excellence and of loyalty to a special religious heritage. A still briefer abridgment, but with some of the same Quaker silhouettes, appeared in Friends Journal, X (1964), 245 f. The year 1964 makes these articles timely, as Swarthmore College was chartered on April 1, 1864. * * * "The Ordeal of William Penn," by Francis Biddle, former United States Attorney General, was published in American Heritage, XV, No. 3 (April 1964), 122 Briefer Notices123 pp. 30-33, 104-110. Its central theme is the Penn-Mead trial in London in 1670. No doubt the prestige of the author and of the periodical will give the subject substantial dissemination. By coincidence the same subject, "The Trial of William Penn," is dealt with in Bucks County Life the same month (Vol. VI, No. 3, pp. 9-13). * * * Iowa Yearly Meeting of the Five Years Meeting published for its centennial in 1963 a ring-bound book of 99 pages. It is profuse in dates and pictures, and hence well called in its titles "Spiritual Trails of a People Called Friends" and "Remembering 100 Years of History." It has sections on education, missions, the Indians, the Underground Railroad, etc. The pictures are vivid reminders of olden times, persons, and meetinghouses. But why does it suggest in its introduction that once Quaker men and women worshiped separately, or select especially Herbert Hoover and D. Elton Trueblood as its products? ? * * In Historic Nantucket, Vol. XI, No. 4 (April 1964) Katharine Seeler has traced the relation of "Nantucket Quakers and the Founding of Kendal, Ohio." * * * H. G .Tibbutt, in Bedfordshire Magazine (England), IX (Winter 1963-64), 89...

Effect of Processing Methods on the Utilization of Hydrolyzed Poultry Feathers by Growing Chicks , ,

THE high protein content of the horny tissues and keratinous areas has been recognized for some time. This protein material, feather, hoofs, horns, and hair, would appear to be nutritionally desirable. However, its low digestibility has in the past rendered it of little value as a feedstuff for most species. Annually over 50,000 tons of dry feathers are available at processing plants. Recently much interest has been shown in the processing of waste feathers for utilization in poultry feeds.Very little interest was shown in early studies concerning hydrolyzed poultry feathers as feed supplements. Scott and Payne (1928) reported that hydrolyzed poultry feathers improved egg production in one year but not in the second year. These researchers concluded that feathers added nothing of importance to poultry diets and the cost of hydrolyzing was too great to allow the use of feathers in practical poultry feeds. Draper (1944) reported that sodium …

Feather Meal and Poultry Meat Scrap in Chick Starting Rations

INTEREST has grown in the use of feathers and poultry offal (blood, viscera, heads and feet) as components of poultry rations. Disposal problems associated with an accumulation of these waste materials at poultry processing plants have led many to inquire into possible uses for such wastes. While untreated offal and feathers have been applied directly to the soil as fertilizer, this method of disposal is generally unsatisfactory.The keratin proteins have generally been considered to be of little nutritive value because of their structure, insolubility and consequent indigestibility. Mangold and Dubiski (1930) conducted balance studies which failed to show any digestion of quills of white goose feathers when these were fed to owls, cats, dogs and rats. Routh (1942) found that powdered feathers were capable of supporting moderate growth in the young rat when supplemented with tryptophan, methionine, histidine and lysine. Wagner and Elvehjem (1942 Wagner and Elvehjem (1943) showed that rats and …