376 



TROPICAL BIRD LIFE I]N" BOTH HEMISPHERES 



Argus Pheasant. 



in the Sandwich Islands, are worth several hundred dollars. 

 Idols or mantles of the Polynesians, decorated with the scarlet 

 feathers of the Melithre'ptes vestiarius, are 

 frequently met with in ethnographical 

 museums. 



While the superb ocellated turkey of 

 Honduras {Meleagris ocellata) displays, 

 with all the pride of a peacock, the eye- 

 like marks of his tail and upper-coverts, the 

 no less beautifully spotted Argus, a bird 

 nearly related to the gold and silver 

 pheasants which have been introduced 

 from China into the European aviaries, 

 conceals his splendour in the dense forests 

 of Java and Sumatra. The wings of this 

 magnificent creature, whose plumage is equally remarkable for 

 variety and elegance, consist of very large feathers, nearly three 

 feet long, the outer webs being adorned with a row of large 

 eyes, arranged parallel to the shaft; the tail is composed of 

 twelve feathers, the two middle ones being about four feet in 

 length, the next scarcely two, and gradually shortening to the 

 outer ones. Its voice is plaintive and not harsh, as in the 

 Indian peacock, which Alexander the Grreat is said to have first 

 introduced into Europe, though its feathers had many centuries 

 before been imported by the Phoenicians. 

 The Peacock is still found wild in many 

 parts of Asia and Africa, but more particu- 

 larly in the fertile plains of India. An- 

 other species, nearly similar in size and 

 proportions, but distinguished by a much 

 longer crest, inhabits the Javanese forests. 

 Though of less dazzling splendour than 

 this peacock's tail, that of the Menura, 

 or Lyre-bird, is unrivalled for its elegance. Fancy two large, 

 broad, black and brown striped feathers, curved in the form of 

 a Grecian Lyre, and between both, other feathers, whose widely- 

 distanced silken barbs envelope and surmount them with a light 

 and airy gauze. No painter could possibly have imagined any- 

 thing to equal this masterpiece of nature, which its shy possessor 

 conceals in the wild bushes of Australia. 



Javanese Peacock. 



