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The down of birds is a layer of fine feathers found under the tougher exterior feathers. Very young birds are clad only in down. Powder down is a specialized type of down found only in a few groups of birds. Down is a fine thermal insulator and padding, used in goods such as jackets, bedding (duvets and featherbeds), pillows and sleeping bags ...
Whiffling is a behaviour some birds perform before landing. Whiffling is a term used in ornithology to describe the behavior whereby a bird rapidly descends with a zig-zagging, side-slipping motion.
The word "goose" is a direct descendant of Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns.In Germanic languages, the root gave Old English gōs with the plural gēs and gandra (becoming Modern English goose, geese, gander, respectively), West Frisian goes, gies and guoske, Dutch: gans, ganzen, ganzerik, New High German Gans, Gänse, and Ganter, and Old Norse gás and gæslingr, whence English gosling.
Piloerection (goose bumps), the physical part of frisson. Frisson (UK: / ˈ f r iː s ɒ n / FREE-son, US: / f r iː ˈ s oʊ n / free-SOHN [1] [2] French:; French for "shiver"), also known as aesthetic chills or psychogenic shivers, is a psychophysiological response to rewarding stimuli (including music, films, stories, people, photos, and rituals [3]) that often induces a pleasurable or ...
The term Down Under is a colloquialism differently construed to refer to Australia and New Zealand, or the Pacific island countries collectively. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The term originally referred solely to Australia and gradually expanded in scope.
Down feathers are fluffy because they lack barbicels, so the barbules float free of each other, allowing the down to trap air and provide excellent thermal insulation. At the base of the feather, the rachis expands to form the hollow tubular calamus (or quill) which inserts into a follicle in the skin. The basal part of the calamus is without ...
A domestic goose is a goose that humans have domesticated and kept for their meat, eggs, or down feathers, or as companion animals. Domestic geese have been derived through selective breeding from the wild greylag goose ( Anser anser domesticus ) and swan goose ( Anser cygnoides domesticus ).
The formation of goose bumps in humans under stress is considered by some to be a vestigial reflex, [4] though visible piloerection is associated with changes in skin temperature in humans. [5] The reflex of producing goose bumps is known as piloerection or the pilomotor reflex, or, more traditionally, [6] horripilation.