Discriminant Analysis on Quantified \nCharacteristic of Raptor Coverts in China

Abstract

Bird feathers are easy obtain as evidence at crime scenes involving birds and have potential to be used in forensic identification.We compared the morphology of wing covert of six raptor species,and quantified the morphological characteristics,to discuss the feasibility to use coverts as evidence.The characteristics of coverts differ significantly between families,but not between genera within same family.Discriminant analysis identified four characteristics,namely feather length(x1),area of feather(x2),area of barb(x3),and area of afterfeather(x4),to develop two discriminant functions y1=3.363x1-1.136x2-0.133x3+0.904x4-5.823,and y2=2.938x1-0.721x2-0.012x3+0.189x4-5.259.With these two discriminant functions,covert feathers of six raptor species can be correctly assigned to family level.