Argus Pheasants 315 



is ornamented with one or two large, metallic, eye-shaped spots, while the sides 

 of the face are nearly or quite naked, and the tarsi armed with two, or three, 

 or exceptionally four, long spurs ; the sexes are quite different in size and colora- 

 tion. The half-dozen species range from the Indo-Chinese countries through the 

 Malay Peninsula and Sumatra and Borneo to the Philippines, the best-known 

 being the Gray Peacock- Pheasant (P. chinquis] of the eastern Himalayas and 

 Indo-Burmese countries, the male of which is mainly brown above, dotted with 

 whitish, many of the feathers with a large, round, eye-shaped spot of metallic 

 green and violet, changing to blue and purple ; the eye-spots on the tail-feathers 

 are in pairs, one on each side of the shaft, and in color are green or purple accord- 

 ing to the way they are viewed ; in the female the upper parts are brown mottled 

 with paler, and the eye-spots mostly black. These birds are found mostly in the 

 lower ranges of hills but little above sea-level, where they frequent especially 

 thick bamboo jungle, being very shy and extremely difficult of approach. Their 

 call notes resemble the syllables ha-ha-ha-ha, which they utter especially in early 

 morning and evening, when they come out to feed. They are especially fond of 

 the fruits of a certain tree, but they also feed on insects, worms, and snails. 

 These birds are considered delicious eating, being taken by the natives in snares 

 which are baited with their favorite berries. Quite closely related is the Malayan 

 Peacock-Pheasant (P. bicalcaratum) of the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. 



Argus Pheasants. Although, according to classical mythology, Juno is 

 said to have transferred the eyes of Argus, after his death, to the tail of her 

 favorite bird, the Peacock, it is not difficult to see how the name of Argus came 

 to be associated with this splendid Pheasant, close of kin to the Peacock, which 

 bears the hundred eyes, not indeed on the tail, but on the great wings. And, 

 it may be added, the traditional acuteness of vision is well maintained, for of all 

 the Pheasants none is more secretive and keen to observe approaching danger. 

 The genus Argusianus embraces three species, one of which, however, is only 

 known from a portion of a single wing-feather, the others being Gray's Argus 

 (A, grayi) of Borneo, and the better-known Argus (A. argus), which range from 

 Siam through the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra. Generically they are distin- 

 guished by the possession of a tail of twelve feathers, the middle pair in the male 

 being enormously elongated and more than four times the length of the outer 

 pair, while similarly the secondaries of the wing greatly exceed the outer quills; 

 the sides of the face and throat are naked. The male Argus Pheasant attains 

 a total length of seventy-two inches and the tail a maximum length of fifty inches, 

 while the primary quills are about nineteen inches long and the secondaries thirty- 

 four inches. The naked parts of the head are dark blue, the short crest is black, 

 and the upper parts black beautifully mottled with buff, while the under parts 

 are buff barred with black in front, and the remainder black with wavy bars of 

 chestnut; the long middle tail-feathers are whitish with kidney-shaped black 

 spots and blotches, and the primaries are beautifully ornamented and patterned 

 with close-set rows of black and rufous spots, but the greatest beauty resides in 

 the secondaries, which have the outer webs ornamented with a row of large eye- 

 shaped spots, these gradually increasing in size toward the tips of the feathers. 



