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Birds Display.

Gould once saw & made a sketch of a male Argus pheasant in full display. The erected long secondary wing-feathers & long tail-feathers together made an immense vertical fan. The primary short wing-feathers were widely separated from each other & brought in front of the breast close to the ground like 2 little shields. These feathers in the female & in other gallinaceous birds are not ornamented, but with this species in which they are displayed in so peculiar a manner, they are ornamented with minute dots & marks in an extraordinary complex

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manner. I think I never saw a more beautiful object than one of these feathers when viewed closely. The Duke of A. states that the ocelli on the wing feathers appear like a convex ball, but when I looked at the bird in the Brit. Mus. with the feathers hanging downwards the ocelli appeared quite flat. Mr Gould however shewed me that when the feather is held vertically the ocelli appear quite convex; & the shading by which this effect is produced is so admirable that it excited the surprise of some eminent artists who have examined it. And it is manifest that this wonderful effect has been produced solely for the sake of exciting the admiration of the female, for it is not visible until he struts & displays himself before her.