Chap. XIV. 



GRADATION OF CHAEACTERS. 



149 



stripes suddenly cease upwards and become confused, 

 and above this limit the whole upper end of the feather 

 (a) is covered with white dots, surrounded by little 

 black rings, standing on a dark ground. Even the 

 oblique stripe belonging to 

 the uppermost ocellus (h) 

 is represented only by a 

 very sliort irregular black 

 mark with the usual, curved, 

 transverse base. As this 

 stripe is thus abruptly cut 

 off above, we can understand, 

 from what has gone before, 

 how it is that the upper 

 thickened part of the ring is 

 absent in the uppermost ocel- 

 lus ; for, as before stated, this 

 thickened part is apparently 

 formed by a broken pro- 

 lonofation of the next his/her 

 spot in the same row. From 

 the absence of the upper 

 and thickened part of the 

 ring, the uppermost ocellus, 

 though perfect in all other 

 respects, appears as if its top 

 had been obliquely sliced off. 

 It would, I think, perplex 

 any one, who believes that 

 the plumage of tlie Argus- 

 pheasant was created as we 

 now see it, to account for the 

 imperfect condition of the 



uppermost ocelli. I should add that in the secondary 

 wing-feather farthest from the body all the ocelli are 



Fig. 59. Portion near summit of one of 

 the Secondary wing-featiiers, bearing 

 perfect ball-and-socket ocelli. 



a. Ornamented upper part. 



b. Uptiormost, imperfect ball-and-socket 



ocellus. ( I'he shading above tlie 

 wiiite mark on the sunmiit of the 

 ocellus is here a little too dark.) 



c. Perlect ocellus. 



