Page:Descent of Man 1875.djvu/453

Rh the same row. The larger basal spots occupy exactly the same relative position on these feathers, as do the perfect ocelli on the longer wing-feathers.

By looking to the next two or three succeeding wing-feathers, an absolutely insensible gradation can be traced from one of the last-described basal spots, together with the next higher one in the same row, to a curious ornament, which cannot be called an ocellus, and which I will name, from the want of a better term, an "elliptic ornament." These are shewn in the accompanying figure (fig. 59). We here see several oblique rows. A, B, C, D,



&c. (see the lettered diagram on the right hand), of dark spots of the usual character. Each row of spots runs down to and is connected with one of the elliptic ornaments, in exactly the same manner as each stripe in fig. 57 runs down to, and is connected with, one of the ball-and-socket ocelli. Looking to any one row, for instance, B, in fig. 59, the lowest mark (b) is thicker and considerably longer than the upper spots, and has its left extremity pointed and curved upwards. This black mark