THE ARGUS PHEASANTS. 73 



,nale within hearing calling, and on the least alarm or excite- 

 ment, such as a troop of monkeys passing overhead, they 

 call. 



"The call of the female is quite distinct, sounding like 

 '■Jiowoivoo^ hoiv-oivoo^ the last syllable mucli prolonged, 

 repeated ten or a dozen times, but getting more and more 

 rapid until it ends in a series of ' owoos ' run togetlier. Both 

 the call of male and female can be heard to an immense 

 distance, that of the former especially, which can be heard at 

 the distance of a mile or more. Both sexes have also a note 

 of alarm, — a short, sharp, hoarse bark. 



" The female, like the male, lives quite solitarily, but she 

 has no cleared space, and wanders about the forest apparently 

 without any fixed residence. The birds never live in paiis, 

 the female only visiting the male in his parlour for a short 

 tinie. 



" The food consists chiefly of fallen fruit, which they swallow 

 whole, especially one about the size and colour of a prune, 

 which is very abundant in the forests of the south ; but they 

 also eat ants, slugs, and insects of various kinds. These birds 

 all come down to the water to drink, at about lo or 1 1 a.m., after 

 they have fed, and before they, or at any rate the males, return 

 to their parlours." 



Nest. — Said to be rudely constructed on the ground in some 

 dense cane-brake. According to natives, the breeding-season 

 continues all the year round, except during the depth of the 

 rains. 



Eggs.— Said^to be seven or eight in number, white or creamy, 

 minutely speckled with reddish-brown like a Turkey's. Mea- 

 surements, 2-6 by 1*9 inches. 



II. gray's ARGUS PHEASANT. ARGUSIANUS GRAYI. 



Argus gray i^ Elliot, Ibis, 1865, p. 423 ; id. Monogr. Phasian. i. 

 p. xviii. pi. 12 (1872). 



