202 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



stones. It is the same with all other birds whose 

 colour is the colour of their home. For the pur- 

 pose of concealment, that colouring would be 

 equally effective if it were laid on without order or 

 regularity of form. But this is never done. The 

 required tints are always disposed in patterns, each 

 varying with the genus and the species ; varying 

 for the mere sake of variation, and for the beauty 

 which belongs to ornament. And where this pur- 

 pose is not under the restraint of any other pur- 

 pose controlling it and keeping it down as it were 

 within comparatively narrow limits, how gorgeous 

 are the results attained ! What shall we say of 

 flowers — those banners of the vegetable world, 

 which march in such various and splendid triumph 

 before the coming of its fruits ? What shall we 

 say of the Humming Birds — whose feathers are 

 made to return the light which falls upon them as 

 if rekindled from intenser fires, and coloured with 

 more than all the colours of all the gems ? 



There is one instance in Nature (and, as far as I 

 know, only one) in which ornament takes the form 

 of pictorial representation. The secondary feathers 

 in the wing of the Argus Pheasant are developed 



