122 Wonders of the Bird World 



top of which a bar is firmly fastened. Over this bar a 

 string is run, by one end of which a heavy block of wood is 

 suspended just under the bar, while the other end is sus- 

 pended to a peg lightly driven into the ground immediately 

 beneath the block. The bird, commencing as usual to clear 

 away these obstructions, soon manages to pull up the peg 

 and thus release the heavy block of wood, which falls and 

 crushes it." l 



The Argus sometimes suffers from its lack of pugnacity, 

 and is flaunted on its own hearth by the more aggressive 

 Fire-back Pheasant of Tenasserim {Lophura rafci). The 

 same excellent field naturalist, whose writings I have 

 quoted above, tells the following story — 



" I noticed on one occasion a very curious thing. I had 

 stalked an Argus, and while waiting to obtain a good shot, 

 I heard the peculiar note, a sort of chukun, chukun ! 

 followed by the whirring noise made by the male Fire-back, 

 and immediately after saw a fine male bird run in to the 

 open space, and begin to chase the Argus round and round 

 its own clearing. The Argus seemed loth to quit its 

 domain, and yet not willing to fight, but at last, being hard 

 pressed, it ran into the jungle. The Fire-back did not 

 attempt to follow, but took up a position in the middle of 

 the clearing and recommenced the whirring noise with its 

 wings, evidently as a challenge, whereupon the Argus 

 slowly returned, but the moment it got within the cleared 

 space, the Fire-back charged it and drove it back into the 

 jungle, and then, as before, took up its position in the 

 middle of the space, and repeated its challenge. The 

 Argus immediately returned, but only to be again driven 

 back, and this continued at least a dozen times, but how 

 much longer it would have gone on I cannot say, for a 

 movement on my part attracting the birds' attention, they 

 caught sight of me, and instantly disappeared in the jungle 

 14 Stray Feathers, 5 vi. pp. 428, 439 (1828). 



