[perh. subst. use of FLAG a., though that is not recorded so early. Cf. FAG sb.2 1.]
1. a. pl. The quill-feathers of a bird’s wing; in quot. 1486 the cubital or secondary feathers of a hawk’s wing. Also attrib. b. (See quot.)
a. 1486. Bk. St. Albans, B j. The federis at the wynges next the body be calde the flagg or the fagg federis.
1575. Turberv., Faulconrie, 274. Otherwhile it chaunceth, through the hurte of a Hawkes wing, that one or twoo of hir Flagges, long feathers, or Sarcelles, are broosed, and thereby bothe put hir to greate paynes, and eake hinder hir fleeing.
1615. Tomkis, Albumazar, II. iv.
| If I mue these Flagges of Yeomanry, | |
| Guild in the seare, and shine in bloome of gentry. |
1635. Quarles, Embl., III. i. (1818), 138.
| Like as the haggard, cloister’d in her mew, | |
| To scour her downy robes, and to renew | |
| Her broken flags. |
1678. Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., 84. The flag-feathers of the Wing [of the Kestrel] are in number twenty four: The exteriour of which are of a brown or dusky colour, but their interiour Vanes are partly of a reddish white, indented with the brown like the teeth of a Saw.
1741. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Feather, The vanes or webs in the flag part of the wing.
1858. W. Clark, Van der Hoeven’s Zool., II. 379. Alcinæ. Wings acute, with flag-feathers often short, with the secondaries especially very short.
b. 1890. Coues, Field & Gen. Ornith., II. iii. 182. Crural feathers are nearly always short and inconspicuous; but sometimes long and flowing, as in the ‘flags’ of most hawks, and in our tree-cuckoos.
2. pl. (See quot.)
1892. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Suppl., Flags, a technical name for a variety of quills.
