What is "bastard wing"

Bastard \Bas"tard\, a.

1. Begotten and born out of lawful matrimony; illegitimate. See Bastard, n., note.

2. Lacking in genuineness; spurious; false; adulterate; -- applied to things which resemble those which are genuine, but are really not so.

   That bastard self-love which is so vicious in itself, and productive of so many vices.
   --Barrow.

3. Of an unusual or irregular make or proportion; as, a bastard musket; a bastard culverin. [Obs.]

4. (Print.) Abbreviated, as the half title in a page preceding the full title page of a book.

   Bastard ashlar (Arch.), stones for ashlar work, roughly squared at the quarry.

   Bastard file, a file intermediate between the coarsest and the second cut.

   Bastard type (Print.), type having the face of a larger or a smaller size than the body; e. g., a nonpareil face on a brevier body.

   Bastard wing (Zo["o]l.), three to five quill feathers on a small joint corresponding to the thumb in some mammalia; the alula.

n. A tuft of feathers borne by the bony thumb-like structure in a bird's wing; alula.

n. tuft of small stiff feathers on the first digit of a bird's wing [syn: alula, spurious wing]