for the fact that this bird lives in an environment where food 
is abundant all the year round, and can be obtained without 
any undue exertion, and that there are no serious enemies to 
be evaded, it would long since have become extinct. For 
this exuberant growth of quill-feathers must be borne all the 
year round, though they are not required to function in their 
later réle, save during the period of courtship. 
Their great length is not their only striking feature, or 
even their chief feature. This, indeed, is represented by 
their extraordinary coloration. For each feather bears along 
its outer web a series of “ ocelli,’’ so coloured as to look like a 
series of dull gold balls lying within a deep cup. Outside 
the ocelli run numerous pale yellow longitudinal stripes on a 
nearly black background. The inner web is of a delicate 
greyish-brown hue, shading into white and relieved by in- 
numerable black spots, while the tips of the quills have white 
spots bordered with black. The primaries, too, are most 
exquisitely coloured, though in the matter of size they are 
not very exceptional. These, indeed, are the only true 
flight feathers. 
The full beauty and significance of the coloration of these 
feathers can only be appreciated during periods of display. 
Then the two wings, in some indescribable manner, are 
opened out so as to form a huge circular screen, concealing 
the whole of the rest of the body. The effect produced from 
202 
