THE ARGUS PHEASANT 



endeavouring to dig it up, but finding all its efforts vain, it 

 twists the narrow pliant portion several times round its neck 

 and takes hold of the bamboo near the ground with its bill, 

 then giving a sudden spring backwards to try and pull it up. 

 The consequence is that its head is nearly severed from its 

 body by the razor-like edges of the bamboo. 



" Another method is to erect two small posts, about 4 

 feet high and 3 feet apart, in the clearings, across the top 

 of which a bar is firmly fastened. Over this bar a string is 

 run, by one end of which a heavy block of wood is sus- 

 pended just under the bar, while the other end is suspended 

 to a peg lightly driven into the ground immediately beneath 

 the block. The bird commencing as usual to clear away 

 these obstructions, soon manages to pull up the peg and thus 

 release the heavy block of wood which falls and crushes it." 



Elliot, in his valuable monograph on the Phasianidce, gives 

 the following description of the Argus Giganteus and the 

 Argus Grayi : — 



Argus Giganteus 



"Although known to naturalists for a century, up to the 

 present time nothing whatever has been recorded of the 

 habits and economy of the Great Argus. No European has 

 ever shot it that I am aware of, and its habits of living in the 

 depths of the forests and amid the recesses of dark thickets, 

 renders it very difficult to observe in its haunts. The Great 

 Argus is not capable of very extended flight, the length of 

 the secondary feathers interfering materially with its efforts at 

 progressing through the air. 



" Five individuals of this species have at different periods 

 been brought alive to Europe. The first was a male and 



103 



