Just remember that there is pretty much a rock solid belief among a large community of scientists, that scales are infact feathers to some degree. Also, please remember that there are those (forgive me I can't recall the term used) failed branches of evolution, and there a heck of a many of them. This image could perhaps be a failed branch. I do like this concept, altho I wonder if the wing to mass ratio is enough. =+D

The recent searches show that feathers and scales got the same origin, yes, but one can NOT be converted into the other through any process. Well the cells begin to specialize, there is no turning back, this means that scales are NOT feathers in any degree, they just evolved from the same kind of cells. :)

Ah, I learned something today, thanks for the knowlege. =+}