Chap. XIII. ] DISPLAY BY THE MALE. 87 



not stand in front of tlie female ; but he erects and ex- 

 pands his tail-feathers a little obliquely, lowering the ex- 

 panded wing on the same side, and raising that on the 

 opposite side. In this attitude the ocelli over the whole 

 body are exposed before the eyes of the admiring female 

 in one grand bespangled expanse. To whichever side she 

 may turn, the expanded wings and the obliquely-held tail 

 are turned toward 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 feath- 

 ers 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 remarks," 

 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 expanded and trailing 

 downward, I was greatly disappointed, for the ocelli ap- 

 peared flat or even concave. Mr. Gould, however, soon 

 made the case clear to me, for he had made a drawing of 

 a male while he was displaying himself. At such times 

 the long secondary feathers in both wings are vertically 

 erected and expanded ; and these, together with the enor- 

 mously-elongated tail-feathers, make a grand semicircular 

 upright fan. Now as soon as the wing-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 



86 ' The Reign of Law,' 1867, p. 203. 



