The successive steps in the shading of the ball-and-socket ocelli can be followed out with equal clearness. The brown, orange, and pale-leaden narrow zones which border the lower black mark of the elliptic ornament can be seen gradually to become more and more softened and shaded into each other, with the upper lighter part towards the left-hand corner rendered still lighter, so as to become almost white. But even in the most perfect ball-and-socket ocelli a slight difference in the tints, though not in the shading, between the upper and lower parts of the ball can be perceived (as was before especially noticed), the line of separation being oblique, in the same direction with the bright coloured shades of the elliptic ornaments. Thus almost every minute detail in the shape and colouring of the ball-and-socket ocelli can be shewn to follow from gradual changes in the elliptic ornaments; and the development of the latter can be traced by equally small steps from the union of two almost simple spots, the lower one (fig. 57) having some dull fulvous shading on the upper side. [Illustration: Fig. 59. Portion near summit of one of the Secondary wing-feathers, bearing perfect ball-and-socket ocelli. _a._ Ornamented upper part. _b._ Uppermost, 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.] The extremities of the longer secondary feathers which bear the perfect ball-and-socket ocelli are peculiarly ornamented. (Fig. 59.) 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, surrounded by little black rings, standing on a dark ground. Even the oblique stripe belonging to the uppermost ocellus (_b_) is represented only by a very short irregular black mark with the usual, curved, transverse base. As this stripe is thus abruptly cut off above, we can understand, from what has gone before, how it is that the upper thickened part of the ring is absent in the uppermost ocellus; for, as before stated, this thickened part is apparently formed by a broken prolongation of the next higher spot in the same row. 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 off. 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 ocelli. I should add that in the secondary wing-feather farthest from the body all the ocelli are smaller and less perfect than on the other feathers, with the upper parts of the external black rings 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