PHEASANTS. 



429 



hackles so much in request for making salmon-flies, and the green jungle-fowl 

 (G. varius), of Java, Lombok, and Flores, distinguished by having an entire 

 upper margin to the comb, and only a single wattle on the throat. 



Peacock- The peacock-pheasants present a different type, with their large, 



Pheasants. f u ij j anc [ rounded tails ornamented with metallic eye-like spots ; the 

 sides of the face being naked, or nearly so, and the legs of the males armed with 

 two, and sometimes three pairs of spurs. Having a distribution very similar to 

 that of the jungle-fowl, they only extend into India as far east as Darjiling, and 

 inhabit the dense hill-forests ranging from a little above the sea-level to an 

 elevation of some six thousand feet. The grey peacock-pheasant (Pdypleetrwm 

 chinquis) of the Indo-Burmese countries, is a remarkably handsome bird, the male 

 having the general colour of the upper-parts brown dotted all over with dirty 

 white, and each of the feathers of the mantle and wings ornamented with a large, 

 round, dark green eye-spot, showing violet, purple, and blue reflections, and edged 

 with successive rings of black, brown, and dirty white ; the upper tail-coverts and 

 tail-feathers being similarly ornamented with pairs of oval spots, situated on each 

 side of the shaft at some distance from the extremity, and wholly green in one 

 light and purple in the other. The throat is thinly covered with white feathers, 

 and the rest of the under-parts are brown with irregular, mottled, and dotted bars 

 of dirty white ; the naked skin on the sides of the face being pale fleshy yellow. 

 The female is darker, and has the eye-spot on the back and wings represented by 

 black spots slightly glossed with purple, while those of the tail are only present 

 on the outer feathers and are much reduced in size. Mr. Clarke, writing of this 

 species, says, it " is common in the north-east of Cachar, where it is found in 

 dense bamboo-jungle, on the sides of ravines, and on the tops of the low ranges of 

 hills, wherever there are jamum trees, as well as on the banks of the river Barak, 

 wherever it is well wooded. On the rocky faces of the Barak banks there is a 

 tree which, during the rainy season, is partially submerged, but in cold weather 

 bears a fruit with seeds like those of a chilli. On these the birds feed greedily 

 in the early morning and towards sunset ; insects and worms, with this fruit, form 

 their chief food, but I have on one occasion found small land-shells and pebbles in 

 the stomach of an adult male." 



Among the most singular representatives of the family are the 

 Argus-Pheasants. fe . \ 



argus-pheasants, distinguished by their large size, enormously 



developed and eyed secondary quills, which far exceed the outer flight-feathers in 

 length, and their extremely long middle tail-feathers. The shape of the wing 

 is specially remarkable, and may be regarded as representing the extreme type of 

 monal wing; the first flight-feather being the shortest, and the tenth the longest, 

 or exactly the reverse of what obtains in the quails and snow-partridge. The 

 common argus (Argusianus giganteiis) is met with in the forests of Siam, 

 Tenasserim, the Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra, while in Borneo the smaller, Gray's 

 argus (A. grayi), takes its place. The male of the true argus has the naked skin 

 of the sides of the head, throat, and fore-part of the neck dark blue ; the feathers 

 on the crown and the short crest black; the upper-parts beautifully chequered, 

 mottled, or spotted with black and buff; the chest rufous barred with black ; and the 

 rest of the under-parts black with wavy bars of chestnut and buff The primary 



