4.2. Primaries

Primary development varied among diet groups. At the age of one week, wild chicks had longer primaries than hand-reared chicks in general (II, Table 3). Only two chicks in the insect-rich diet group had primary P8 measurable. Primaries were longest in chicks fed an insect-rich diet (II, Tables 3, 4) until the age of 21 days. Fully developed primaries could be found earlier in the chicks that were fed insect-rich diet than other chicks. Chicks fed an insect-rich diet had at least five completely developed juvenile primaries at the age of 28 days, while chicks fed a low-insect diet or a fish diet had only three. At the age of 13 weeks every chick had fully developed P10 primaries, and no difference in their length was found among diet groups.