CHAPTER XX. 
PHEASANTS ADAPTED FOR THE AVIARY (CONTINUED). 
THE ARGUS PHEASANT (ARGUS 
GIG-ANTEUS). 
Ay ue Argus Pheasant, as it was termed by Linneus, is undoubtedly 
one of the most magnificent, and at the same time, in the 
living state, one of the least known, of the family of the 
pheasants. Its native haunts are the forests of Malacca and 
Siam, and it is also found in North-western Borneo. It is 
so extremely shy in its habits that it is rarely, if ever, shot, 
even by native hunters, who nevertheless manage to secure 
numbers by snaring the birds. 
WANG SS Mr. Wallace, in his most interesting work on the Malay 
: rc _ Archipelago, describes his journey into the heart of the Argus 
ny. and, writing of Mount Ophir, fifty miles eastward of Malacca, states :— 
“The place. where we first encamped, at the foot of the mountain, being 
very gloomy, we chose another in a kind of swamp, near a stream overgrown 
- with zingiberaceous plants, in which a. clearing was easily made. Here our men 
built two little huts without sides, that would just shelter us from the rain, and 
we lived in them for a week, shooting and insect-hunting, and roaming about the 
forest at the foot of the mountain. This was the country of the great Argus 
pheasant, and we continually heard its cry. On asking the old Malay to try and 
shoot one for me, he told me that, though he had been twenty years shooting birds 
in these forests, he had never yet shot one, and had never seen one except after it 
had been caught. The bird is so exceedingly shy and wary, and runs along the 
ground in the densest parts of the forest so quickly, that it is impossible to get 
near it; and its sober colours and rich eye-like spots, which are so ornamental 
when seen in a museum, must harmonise well with the dead leaves among which 
it dwells, and render it very inconspicuous. All the specimens sold in Malacca are 
caught in snares, and my informant, though he had shot none, had snared plenty.” 
