120 Wonders of the Bird World 



one of the birds within hearing begins to call, and on 

 any alarm or excitement, such as a troop of Monkeys 

 passing overhead, they immediately give vent to their note, 

 which sounds like " how-Jiow ! " repeated ten or a dozen 

 times. This note is given out at short intervals when the 

 male is in its clearing, and is answered by every other male 

 in the vicinity. Mr. Davison says that the female has 

 quite a different note, which sounds like " how-owoo, hozv- 

 owoo ! " the last syllable much prolonged, repeated ten or a 

 dozen times, but getting more and more rapid, until it ends 

 in a series of "ouvos" run together. The call-notes of 

 both the male and female Argus travel to an immense 

 distance, that of the former especially being heard at a 

 distance of a mile or more. 



The " drawing-room " consists of some open level spot, 

 sometimes chosen down in a dark gloomy ravine, entirely 

 surrounded and shut in by dense cane-brakes and rank 

 vegetation ; sometimes on the top of a hill where the jungle 

 is comparatively open, from which the male bird clears 

 everything in the shape of dead leaves or weeds for the 

 space of six or eight yards square, until nothing but the 

 bare earth remains, and thereafter he keeps this place 

 scrupulously clean, carefully removing every dead leaf or 

 twig that may happen to fall on it from the trees above. 

 The food of the Argus consists chiefly of fallen fruit, as well 

 as of ants, slugs, and insects. The birds feed in the early 

 morning, and all come down to the water to drink about 

 ten or eleven a.m., and the males then retire to look after 

 their drawing-room for the rest of the day. 



Mr. Davison says that in his opinion these cleared spaces 

 are undoubtedly dancing-grounds, but he was never able to 

 catch one of the birds actually dancing in them. The 

 proprietor was always either seated quietly in the clearing 

 or was moving slowly backwards and forwards, calling at 

 short intervals. Except in the hours of feeding or drinking 



