On Wed, Jan 21, 2004 at 11:27:53AM -0800, Dennis Paulson wrote:
> To relieve the pressure of having to run down to the Cedar River
> mouth every few days, take a look at the "wax" (nothing more than a
> modified feather rachis) tip of a Cedar Waxwing secondary feather at
> http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/waxwingtip.jpg. Gary Shugart
> photographed this with our Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera.

Just the fellow to possibly answer this one, Dennis. Somebody asked me the
other day what the scientific name is for the waxy tips on waxwing
secondaries. I did a google search and apparently there is *no* jargon
coined for this particular feather bit. Please inform if otherwise. I think
it high time one was thought up if not. Maybe we could have a contest :))

--
Jack Bowling Prince George, BC mailto: jbinpg at shaw.ca