ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



DANCING GROUND OF THE BORNEAN ARGUS PHEASANT. 

 Heart of the jungle in central Borneo. 



enormou.s distances we were compelled to cover 

 and the omnipresence of the hordes of Monp;o- 

 lians. But b\- constantly re-adapting our plans 

 to the new conditions we were able at last to 

 reach the objects of our search; whether bj' 

 steamer and sampan, as in the valley of the 

 Yangtze ; by liouse-boat, as in the region back 

 of Foochow; or by palanquin and camel on the 

 bleak deserts of ^Mongolia. We found manj- 

 forms of the true Pheasants, (Phasianiis). the 

 Reeves, (Syrmaticus), and great was our re- 

 joicing when we were able to obtain notes on 

 the last group of our search, the Eared Pheas- 

 ants. (Crossoptilum). We succeeded in this 

 only after a long period of impatient waiting 

 for a decrease in the plague. Fortune again 

 favored lis and we took the chance of a dash 

 through the infected districts and acliieved our 

 goal. 



Our last work in the field was in Japan where 

 the birds were comparativelj' accessible and 

 where their study was fraught with no element 

 of danger — a welcome condition after our 

 Yunnanese and Chinese experiences. The cause 

 of the fearlessness of the birds here was rather 

 remarkable. The Imperial Preserves are also 



the tr.iining grounds for the Japanese troops, 

 so one could easily approach a crowing pheas- 

 ant witli the noise of one's advance adequatelj' 

 muffled by the roar of a sham battle going on in 

 the surrounding plain ! 



We reached New York, completing the cir- 

 cuit of the globe, on May '27, 1911. Alto- 

 gether, Mrs. Beebe and myself spent seventeen 

 months in this search for pheasants, visiting 

 twenty countries and travelling approximately 

 fifty-two thousand miles. 



Aside from the actual pheasant work of the 

 trip, a considerable number of rare mammals 

 were photographed and collected, and over a 

 thousand species of birds were observed and 

 notes made on their habits. Several hundred of 

 the more interesting birds, and about four thou- 

 sand insects were preserved. 

 ******** 



During our absence from the larger centers 

 of civilization, tremendous .-idvances had been 

 made in air-ships and in all other phases of re- 

 cent human development, but evolution in the 

 field of Nature as we observed it, was only de- 

 structive — a rapid retrogression often discern- 

 able from month to month. We could hardly 



