AME-BIRDS. 23 



jungles and lower lull-forests of tlic Iiido-Malayan countries and the 

 islands of Sumatra, Borneo, and Palawan are their home. The leg of 

 the male is armed with two, three, and sometimes four sjiurs, the 

 number being rarely the same on the two legs. The Grey Peacock- 

 Pheasant {P. chiiiquis) (85) ranges from Sikliim to Tenasserim and 

 eastwards to the Laos country. The female when followed by her 

 chicks has a curious habit of carrying her tail widely spread, and the 

 yonng always remain hidden beneath it. They run forward when 

 called by the mother to pick up food, but having eaten it, immediately 

 retreat to their shelter. A very rare species may be seen in the 

 Borneau Peacock-Pheasant [P. scJileiermacheri) (86), which is peculiar 

 to that island. 



The Ai'gus Pheasants arc represented by two distinct types, both of [(,'ential 

 which are exhibited in the centre case. The true Argus Pheasants ^'^"^J 

 {Argiislaniis) , as already stated, arc remarkable for the shape of the 

 wings, in wlueli the most perfect Pheasant-type is found, the first flight- 

 featlier being the shortest and the tenth the longest. Even more 

 remarkable are the enormously developed secondary quills of the male, 

 beautifully decorated with rows of large ocelli. The Argus Pheasant 

 (yi. urjjus) (87) ranges from the Laos country and Siam through the 

 Malay Peninsnla to Sumatra, its favourite haunts being the depths of 

 the evergreen-forests. Here a level spot, shut in by some dense cane- 

 brake, is chosen l)y the male, and cleared of all dead leaves and weeds 

 for a space of six or eight yards square, till nothing but the bare earth 

 remains. This spot is suljscqucntlv kept scrupulously clean, and used 

 as a dancing-ground. The male spends the greater part of tlie day 

 there, and roosts at night on some tree close by. In Borneo a different 

 and somewhat smaller species [A. yrayi) occurs. 



Of the second genus [Rheinhardtius) a representative will be found in 

 Elieinhardt's Crested Argus {R. ucellatus) (88), one of the rarest of all 

 the game-birds. In this species no extraordinary development of the 

 secondary flight-feathers is found, but the tail is enormously long in 

 the male. For many years the existence of this liird was only known 

 from some tail-feathers in the Paris Museum, and it was not until 1883 

 that a few pairs were obtained by the French during the Tonkin war. 

 A second species has recently been discovered in the native state of 

 Pahang in the south of the ]Malay Peninsula. 



Of the Jungle-Fowl [Gallus) at least four verv distinct species are [Ca?e 10.] 

 known to inhabit the dense jungles of the Indian Peninsula, Indo- 

 INIalayan countries, and the adjacent islands. The tail is carried low in 

 wild birds ; it is only in domestic fowls that it is raised above the back. 



During the moult in June, when the long tail- and flight-feathers are 

 shed, the hackles arc replaced by short featliera like those of the 



