Alan & Steven-
Thanks for your replies. I thought it was kind of an
interestingly esoteric little side topic. I have to
admit to a fascination with the origin and derivation
of words (etymology as opposed to entymology),
possibly if I paid more attention to entymology, I
might catch more fish. :>\
If you guys don't mind, I'd like to kind of combine
the info you sent and forward it to Fly Tyer magazine,
they were looking for responses from readers on this
topic.
Merry Christmas and Good Fishing.
-John
Oregon
--- Alan Di Somma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Your question on biots prompted me to look at some
> old e-mail I received from another flyfishing list.
> I hope some of this info helps.
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Yes, I am the "bird man". Your question about what
> to call the
> part of the feather opposite the biot side prompted
> me to go look at a
> biot. I do not flytie so I read with some curiosity
> the terms you folks
> use. Biot is not a term found in ornithology and I
> hear it often
> used. The feather has a central shaft with the
> largest part being called
> the rachis and the lower, usually naked, part called
> the calamus. Off the
> rachis are two vanes. In those flight feathers that
> emerge from the
> "hand" of the bird (i.e., primary feathers), the
> vanes are
> asymmetrical. The anterior vane is narrow and stiff
> whereas the posterior
> vane is larger and more flexible. The vanes are
> composed of hundreds of
> barbs which project out from the rachis. Each barb
> is like a miniature
> feather with a shaft called the rachilla and two
> venules coming off it
> formed of barbules. (Sounds like a fractal?). In
> the biot, i.e. a barb
> from the anterior vane of a primary, the rachilla is
> enlarged (hence the
> stiffness of that vane). There is no name for the
> barbs on the posterior
> vane that I am aware of. The biot is a term unique
> to flytying(could not
> find it either in a dictionary or in a book of root
> words in
> science). Like the term "herl" I suppose.
> I did find a pretty good description of
> feather structure at
>
<http://globalflyfisher.com/staff/luallen/feather.htm>
> although I had to
> look hard to find the term "vane" used.
>
>
> Alan Di Somma
> phxflytyer
> Phoenix,Az.
> http://members.home.net/azflycasters/index.html
>
>
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=====
The River-
You passers-by, who share my journey,
You move and change,I move and am the same;
You move and are gone, I move and remain.
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