Feather development non-nervous. They have a tubular central shaft called the rachis; coming off either side of the rachis are the veins, which have a series of barbs with interlocking connections that are called barbules. The rachis and attached veins make up the spathe. The opposite of the rachis is the calamus, which anchors the feather to the body and is moved by attached dermal muscles. There are many different types of feathers that mostly follow this basic design with few variations based on evolutionary needs. Feathers are sometimes referred to as “elaborate reptile scales” just as birds are sometimes viewed as
Calamus (poems) Calamus (poems) The "Calamus" poems are a cluster of poems in "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman. These poems celebrate and promote "the manly love of comrades". Most critics believe that these poems are Whitman's clearest expressions in print of his ideas about homosexual love. The first evidence of the poems that were to become the "Calamus" cluster is an unpublished manuscript sequence of twelve poems entitled "Live Oak With Moss," written in or before spring 1859. These poems were all incorporated in Whitman's 1860 edition of "Leaves of Grass", but out of their original sequence. These poems seem to