. The bird, its form and function . haels Madonnas should have beenformed by the selection of chance daubs of paint made bya long succession of young artists, not one of whom in-tended at first to draw the human figure. In order todiscover how the ocelli have been developed we cannotlook to a long line of progenitors, nor to many closelyallied forms, for such do not now exist. But fortunatelythe several feathers on the wing suffice to give us a clueto the problem, and they prove to demonstration that agraduation is at least possible from a mere spot to afinished ball-and-socket ocellus. Two fe
. The bird, its form and function . haels Madonnas should have beenformed by the selection of chance daubs of paint made bya long succession of young artists, not one of whom in-tended at first to draw the human figure. In order todiscover how the ocelli have been developed we cannotlook to a long line of progenitors, nor to many closelyallied forms, for such do not now exist. But fortunatelythe several feathers on the wing suffice to give us a clueto the problem, and they prove to demonstration that agraduation is at least possible from a mere spot to afinished ball-and-socket ocellus. Two feathers from the wing of a Vulturine Guinea-fowl have been chosen to illustrate a more simple butno less beautiful colour evolution. On the less exposedside of one of the feathers are three or four series of irregu-lar w^hite spots which tend in places to form transversebands. On the opposite side of the shaft near the tipthese spots are still distinct, but as our glance passesgradually toward the base of the feather, the spots con-. Fig. 38.—Adult Brown Pelicans in full breeding plumage. 1/8 natural size. 59 6o The Bird verge more and more, until two distinct longitudinallines are formed, with traces of a third near the smaller feather from the same wing is marked withspots which are nearly circular and which show fainttraces of encircling bands of white pointing toward astill more elaborate system of decoration.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1906
