Chap. XIII. DISPLAY BY THE MALE. 91 



panse. To whichever side she may turn, the expanded 

 wings and the obliquely-held tail are turned towards 

 her. The male Tragopan pheasant acts in nearly the 

 same manner, for he raises the feathers of the body, 

 though not the wing itself, on the side which is opposite 

 to the female, and which would otherwise be concealed, 

 so that nearly all the beautifully-spotted feathers are 

 exhibited at the same time. 



The case of the Argus pheasant is still more striking. 

 The immensely developed secondary wing-feathers, which 

 are confined to the male, are ornamented with a row of 

 from twenty to twenty-three ocelli, each above an inch in 

 diameter. The feathers are also elegantly marked with 

 oblique dark stripes and rows of spots, like those on the 

 skin of a tiger and leopard combined. The ocelli are 

 so beautifully shaded that, as the Duke of Argyll re- 

 marks,^^ they stand out like a ball lying loosely within 

 a socket. But when I looked at the specimen in the 

 British Museum, which is mounted with the wings ex- 

 panded and trailing downwards, I was greatly disap- 

 pointed, for the ocelli appeared fiat or even concave. 

 Mr. Gould, however, soon made the case clear to me, 

 for he had made a drawing of a male whilst he was dis- 

 playing himself. At such times the long secondary 

 leathers in both wings are vertically erected and ex- 

 panded ; and these, together with the enormously elon- 

 gated tail-feathers, make a grand semicircular upright 

 fan. Now as soon as the winir-feathers are held in this 

 position, and the light shines on them from above, the 

 full effect of the shading comes out, and each ocellus at 

 once resembles the ornament called a ball and socket. 

 These feathers have been shewn to several artists, and all 

 have expressed their admiration at the p-erfect shading. 



^ ' The Keigu of Law/ 1867, p. 203. 



