Archery Tackle : Page 69

The kind of feathers best suited for this purpose are thefive pointer feathers from the end of a turkey's wing. Beforethe white man ever heard a turkey gobble or saw him strut,

archers of Europe, Asia and Africa had to use feathers fromother large birds. The grey goose—of song and story—fur-nished most of the feathers for the English archers. The swash-buckling Henry VIII probably had his arrows fletched with

Figure 20. Evolution of Fletching Trim

A—Primitive, B—Old English, C-Balloon, D—Modern.

feathers from the peacock when he shot at the historic "Fieldof the cloth of gold."

The method of applying feathers to arrows has undergonea great change. In the olden days, the barbs were strippedfrom the vane; this process left the barbs attached to a thin,