A rgus-Pheasa nts. 287 



solitarily, both males and females ; every 

 male has his own drawing-room, of which 

 he is excessively proud and which he 

 keeps scrupulously clean. They haunt 

 exclusively the depths of the evergreen 

 forests, and each male chooses some 

 open level spot sometimes down in a 

 dark gloomy ravine, entirely surrounded 

 and shut in by dense cane brakes and 

 rank vegetation sometimes on the top 

 of a hill, where the jungle is compara- 

 tively open from which he clears all 

 the dead leaves and weeds for a space of 

 six or eight yards square, until nothing but 

 the bare clean earth remains, and thereafter 

 he keeps this place scrupulously clean, 

 removing carefully every dead leaf or twig 

 that may happen to fall on it from the 

 trees above. 



" These cleared spaces are undoubtedly 

 used as dancing grounds, but personally 

 I have never seen a bird dancing in them, 

 but have always found the proprietor 

 either seated quietly in, or moving back- 

 ward and forwards slowly about, them, 

 calling at short intervals. Except in the 

 morning and evening, when they roam 

 about to feed and drink, the males are 

 always to be found at home, and they 

 roost at night on some tree quite close by. 



