168 THE ARGUS PHEASANT, OR GIGANTIC ARGUS. 



with the body, and with the two plumes folded to- 

 gether. 



The young males possess none of the varied mark- 

 ings just now attempted to be described. They are 

 of a uniform dull brown, spotted and irregularly 

 blotched, reddish-yellow, brown, and black. After 

 the first moult, there is still no appearance of the 

 ocellated spots. The shafts of the feathers of the 

 wings are black, the quills are of a dull brown, clouded 

 with a line on the inner webs, and marked towards 

 the tip with black and brown spots ; the secondaries 

 are of a uniform brown on the inner webs, but the 

 outer ones have a ground of brownish-yellow, with 

 black wavy bands, and the part where the ocellated 

 spots are to appear are marked with black crescents 

 surrounded with chestnut. After the second moult, 

 all the colours of the adult acquire a regular distri- 

 bution ; after the third, they are still better defined, 

 the showy spots are small, of an irregular form, and 

 much less numerous than in the adults ; and it is not 

 until after the fourth moult, that the shades acquire 

 their perfect brilliancy, and the markings their re- 

 gularity *. 



The female is still less known than the male. 

 Among the birds sent from abroad, those of unob- 

 trusive plumage are seldom included, and when 

 commerce is the object, even a reiterated request 

 foils in procuring the wished for specimens. With 

 thirty males, Temminck thought himself fortunate 

 * Temminck. 



