GAME-BIRDS. 23 
jungles and lower hill-forests of the Indo-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 spurs, the 
number being rarely the same on the two legs. The Grey Peacock- 
Pheasant (P. chinguis) (85) ranges from Sikhim 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 
young 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 
Bornean Peacock-Pheasant (P. schleiermacheri) (86), which is peculiar 
to that island. 
The Argus Pheasants are represented by two distinct types, both of 
which are exhibited in the Central Case. The true Argus Pheasants 
(Argusianus), as already stated, are remarkable for the shape of the 
wings, in which the most perfect Pheasant-type is found, the first flight- 
feather being the shortest and the tenth the longest. Hven more 
remarkable are the enormously developed secondary quills of the male, 
beautifully decorated with rows of large ocelli. The Argus Pheasant 
(A. argus) (87) ranges from the Laos country and Siam through the 
Malay Peninsula 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 by 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 subsequently kept scrupulously clean, and used 
as a dancing-ground. ‘The male spends the greater part of the day 
there, and roosts at night on some tree close by. In Borneo a different 
and somewhat smaller species (A. grayi) occurs. 
Of the second genus (Rheinhardtius) a representative will be found in 
Rheinhardt’s Crested Argus (R. ocellatus) (88), one of the rarest of all 
the game-birds. In this species no extraordinary development of the 
secoudary flight-feathers is found, but the tail is enormously long in 
the male. For many years the existence of this bird 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 durmg 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 very distinct species are 
known to inhabit the dense jungles of the Indian Peninsula, Indo- 
Malayan 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 are replaced by short feathers like those of the 
[Central 
Case. | 
[Case 10,] 
