G AM K- BIROS. 



2^ 



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. chinquis) (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 [Central 

 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. Even 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 (P. ocellatus) (88), one of the rarest of all 

 the game-birds. In this species no extraordinary development of the 

 secondary 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 during 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 vq^^q iq.] 

 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 



