in Physiology, a general name for the covering of birds; it being common to the animals of this class to have their whole body, or at least the greater part of it, covered with feathers or plumage. Feathers form a considerable article in commerce, particularly those of the ostrich, heron, swan, peacock, and goose, for plumes, ornaments of the head, filling of beds, writing-pens, and the like.

Geese are plucked five times a year in some parts of Great Britain; and in cold seasons many of them die by this barbarous custom. Those feathers which are brought from Somersetshire are esteemed the best, and those from Ireland the worst.

Eider down is imported from Denmark; the ducks which supply it being inhabitants of Hudson's Bay, Greenland, Iceland, and Norway. Our own islands west of Scotland breed numbers of these birds, which form a profitable branch of trade to the poorer class of the inhabitants. Hudson's Bay also furnishes very fine feathers, supposed to be of the goose kind. The down of the swan is brought from Dantzig.