. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Evolution; Natural selection; Heredity; Human beings -- Origin. The extremities of the longer secondary feathers which bear the perfect ball-and-socket ocelli, are peculiarly ornamented (fig. 61). The oblique longitudinal stripes suddenly cease upwards and become confused; and above this limit the whole upper end of the feather (a) is covered with white dots, sur- rounded by little black rings, standing on a dark ground. The oblique stripe belonging to the uppermost ocellus (Z>) is barely represented by a very short irregular black mar
. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Evolution; Natural selection; Heredity; Human beings -- Origin. The extremities of the longer secondary feathers which bear the perfect ball-and-socket ocelli, are peculiarly ornamented (fig. 61). The oblique longitudinal stripes suddenly cease upwards and become confused; and above this limit the whole upper end of the feather (a) is covered with white dots, sur- rounded by little black rings, standing on a dark ground. The oblique stripe belonging to the uppermost ocellus (Z>) is barely represented by a very short irregular black mark with 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 obliquely sliced on0. 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 #§#fl. Fig. 61. Portion near summit of one of the secondary wing-feathers, bearing perfect ball-and-socket ocelli. a. Ornamented upper part. b. U ppermost, imperfect ball-and-socket ocellus. (The shading above the white mark on the summit of the ocellus is here a little too dark.) c. Perfect ocellus. 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 spots on this feather shew less tendency than usual to become confluent into stripes ; they are on the contr
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectnaturalselection
