Mr. D. G. Elliot on an apparently new Pheasant. 119 



XVI. — Description of an apparently/ new Species of Pheasant 

 belonging to the genus Argus. By D. G. Elliot, F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S., &c. 



The form oi Argus-Pheassint to which I desire to call the 

 attention of ornithologists is founded merely upon a few fea- 

 thers of the wing and tail ; but meagre as my materials may 

 be, they are sufficient to establish the species, should the rest 

 of the plumage of the bird hereafter be ascertained to accord 

 with the feathers we now have, in presenting and continuing 

 those characteristics which cause these to differ from the other 

 known species of Argus. To suppose that such would be the 

 case is not by any means a great stretch of the imagination ; 

 and it is no more difficult to establish a species upon a single 

 feather than it is to reconstruct a skeleton from a single bone, 

 which has frequently been accomplished with the happiest 

 results. The species I now describe is represented in the 

 Paris Museum by four feathers, one long central one of the 

 tail and three of the wing, differing altogether in colour and 

 markings from all others with which I am acquainted. 

 They have been known for some considerable time to natu- 

 ralists as Argus ocellatus ; but although the name has been 

 frequently used in different ornithological works, no descrip- 

 tion of these feathers has ever been published — an omission I 

 now propose to supply. 



Argus ocellatus. 



Argus ocellatus, J. Verr. MS. ; Bon. Compt. Rend. t. xlii. p. 878 (desc. 

 nuU.); Sclat. Proc. Zool. Soc, (1863), p. 124; Gray, List Gall. 

 (1867), p. 26. 



Bah. ? 



The largest primary is dark brown upon the outer portion 

 of the outer web, and for about two-thirds of its length from 

 the tip is barred with blackish brown, and also mottled with 

 the same, chiefly in the centre of the web. The base of the 

 feather and also both sides of the shaft are light rufous buff, 

 unspotted, the outer margin of the inner web being brown 

 faintly dotted with dark brown. The buff colour of the base 

 extends the whole length of the feather, becoming darker at 

 the tip. The smallest feather differs from the one just de- 

 scribed by only having the base and a line along the shaft of 

 the inner web for half its length bright buff, the remainder 

 being dark brown barred and mottled with blackish brown on 

 the outer web, and only faintly dotted with dark brown on a 

 small portion of the inner web from about halfway from the 



