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(Birds gradation)

spread out with in much pride. Their feathers are of extraordinary length far exceeding relatively to the two tail- feathers.

The lower In the feather, all the lower barbs along the whole lower part of the shaft shaft stand separate or as decomposed; but then in this is case with the feathers of some other birds,─ but such decomposed barbs are not occur in many kinds of birds, are not rare, as in the tail-coverts of another gallinaceous bird, viz the Cr Crossoptilon , wd in certain domestic variations of the fowl. The barbs coalesce towards the extremity of the feathers shaft & form the oval disc which is ornamental with the or ocellus, which [illeg] has already been described & is certainly one of the most beautiful objects in the world. A trifling character in the disc perhaps deserves notice: the barbs for a space near its surrounding its further end along one of the uncertain the zones (fig) some to a greater or lesser degree their barbules & become naked; so that the disc is partially surrounded by a zone, which appears as if it were transparent & thus give acquires a highly finished aspect. But I have elsewhere described.* (* Variation of Animals & Plants under Domestication. Vol. I p. 254) an exactly analogous variation in the hackles of a domestic sub-variety of the Game Cock; in which to the tips sharing a metallic lustre, "were separated from the lower part by a symmetrically-shaped transparent zone, formed of the composed of naked portions of the barbs."

In At the centre of the disc is formed by an the iridescent blue-black

[81]

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(Birds Chapter variability)

That birds living in a state of nature present, like all other animals, individual differences everyone admits; that they have sometimes been modified into present sometimes present slightly stranger & more prominent & somewhat more strongly marked difference fixed variations or races is likewise generally admitted, few naturalists doubt. We have evidence of this in the geographical races which are known to occur in different districts in various quarters of the world.* (B) That bird under domestication have undergone an immense amount of inherited change in all sorts of characters is certain. Besides man males with birds in a state of nature, the probably [2 words illeg] more individual differences in the brilliancy of the plumage or in the development of the plumes & other ornaments no doubt commonly afford, the elements of the males [illeg], it is probably, the surest & most important element for change for sexual selection to accommodate; all all the more brilliant ornamented individuals succeeding oftener better than the less brilliant ornamented in bearing offspring. (a. text) naturally (a) text. For as I have elsewhere explained * 3 [illeg] the chaces would always generally be strongly against any a variation, whether slight or well pronounced, which occurred in a occurring in — single individuals being preserved even in the first generation in the first & succeeding generation through a long succession of, & thus rendered permanent they may & in succeeding generations, nevertheless variations of the same [text excised] even strongly marked & abrupt ones, [text excised] are so strongly claw fixedly [text excised] found