HO 



The Descent of Man. 



Past II 



The extremities of the longer secondary feathers which bear 

 hhe perfect ball-and-socket ocelli, are peculiarly ornamented 

 (fig. 61). The oblique lougitudinal stripes suddenly cease 

 upwards and become onn fused; and above this limit the whole 



upper end of the feather (a) ia 

 covered with white dots, sur- 

 rounded by little black rings, 

 standing on a dark ground. 

 The oblique stripe belonging to 

 the uppermost ocellus (6) is 

 barely represented by a very 

 sliort irregular black mark vith 

 the usual, curved, tranverse base. 

 As this stripe is thus abruptly 

 cut off, we can perhaps under- 

 stand from what has gone before, 

 how it is that the upper thickened 

 part of the ring is here absent ; for, 

 as before stated, this thickened 

 part apparently stands in some 

 relation with a broken prolonga- 

 tion from the next higher spot. 

 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 

 olDliqnely sliced off. It would, 

 I think, perplex any one, who 

 believes that the plumage of 

 the Argus-pheasant was created 

 as we now see it, to account for 

 the imperfect condition of the 

 uppermost ocellus. I should add 

 that on the secondary wing- 

 feather farthest from the body, 

 all the ocelli are smaller and 

 less perfect than on the other 

 feathers, and have the upper 

 part of the ring deficient, as in the case just mentioned. The 

 imperfection here seems to be connected with the fact that the 

 spot? on this feather shew less tendency than usual to become 

 confluent into stripes; they are on the contrary, often broken up 

 into smaller spots, so that two or three rows run down to th<" 

 same ocellus 



ii. Puvtion near summit of one of 

 \h& secondary wing-feiithers, bearing 

 perfect baU-and-socket oceLli. 



a. Ornamented upper part. 



b I) I ipennost, imperfect ball-and-socket 

 ocplluri. (The ehadins above the 

 white mark on the summit of the 

 ocellti!? i- here u little too dark.) 



c. Perfect ocellus. 



