39^ The Descent of Man. Part II. 



which is opposite to the female, and which would otherwise he 

 concealed, so that nearly all the beautifully spotted feathers are 

 exhibited at the same time. 



The Argus pheasant affords a much more remarkable case. The 

 immensely developed secondary wing-feathers are confined to the 

 male ; and each is ornamented with a row of from twenty to 

 twenty-three ocelli, above an inch in diameter. These feathers 

 are also elegantly marked with oblique stripes and rows of spots 

 of a dark colour, like those on the skin of a tiger and leopard 

 combined. These beautiful ornaments are hidden until the male 

 shews himself off before the female. He then erects his tail, and 

 expands his wing-feathers into a great, almost upright, circular 

 fan or shield, which is carried in front of the body. The neck 

 and head are held on one side, so that they are concealed by the 

 fan; but the bird in order to see the female, before whom he is 

 displaying himself, sometimes pushes his head between two of 

 the long wing-feathers (as Mr. Bartlett has seen), and then pre- 

 sents a grotesque appearance. This must be a frequent habit 

 with the bird in a state of nature, for Mr. Bartlett and his son on 

 examining some perfect skins sent from the East, found a place 

 between two of the feathers, which was much frayed, as if the 

 head had here frequently been pushed through. Mr. Wood 

 thinks that the male can also peep at the female on one side, 

 beyond the margin of the fan. 



The ocelli on the wing-feathers are wonderful objects ; for they 

 are so shaded that, as the Duke of Argyll remarks, 90 they stand 

 out like balls lying loosely within sockets. When I looked at 

 the specimen in the British Museum, which is mounted with the 

 wings expanded and trailing downwards, I was however greatly 

 disappointed, for the ocelli appeared flat, or even concave. But 

 Mr. Gould soon made the case clear to me, for he held the 

 feathers erect, in the position in which they would naturally be 

 displayed, and now, from the light shining on them from above, 

 each ocellus at once resembled the ornament called a ball and 

 socket. These feathers have been shewn to several artists, and 

 all have expressed their admiration at the perfect shading. It 

 may well be asked, could such artistically shaded ornaments 

 have been formed by means of sexual selection ? But it will be 

 convenient to defer giving an answer to this question, until we 

 treat in the next chapter of the principle of gradation. 



The foregoing remarks relate to the secondary wiug-feathers, 



but the primary wing-feathers, which in most gallinaceous birds 



are uniformly coloured, are in the Argus pheasant equally 



wonderful. They are of a soft brown tint with numerous dark 



90 'The Reign of Law,' 18G7, p. 203 



