238 CLASS AVES. 



Malacca in I78O, as a great curiosity. The adult bird is the 

 shape of a turkey-hen ; its entire length is about five feet 

 three inches or more. The two intermediate plumes of the 

 tail are three feet eight inches ; the length of the secondaries 

 of the wings is two feet ten, and that of the tarsus a little 

 more than four inches. The throat, a part of the fore-neck, 

 and the cheeks, are featherless. The skin which covers these 

 parts, has a few scattered black hairs, and forms many irre- 

 gular folds, without any rudiment of a membrane under the 

 neck, nor any appendage of this nature to the cheeks. The 

 colour of these parts is a fine crimson. 



We shall not attempt to enlarge on the description of the 

 argus, in the text. In fact, no language could represent the 

 various tints, and demi-tints, and shades that prevail through- 

 out its plumage. It would seem as if Nature, after having 

 lavished, and, as it, were exhausted, all her brilliancy of 

 colouring on so many birds, had taken a pleasure in assem- 

 bling upon this every variety of her soberer hues ; unsatisfied 

 with having charmed our sight with the resplendency of 

 purple, gold, and azure in the peacock, the bird of Paradise, 

 and the humming-bird, she appears desirous of revealing to 

 us all the resources of her art, by producing the most elegant 

 and harmonious shades even from the refuse of her inimitable 

 pallet. 



When the argus pays his court to the female, he displays 

 the fine feathers of his wings, and trails them along the 

 ground. Then the varied mirrors with which they are 

 adorned appear to the best advantage. He also elevates his 

 tail, which appears like a broad fan. When this bird is 

 undisturbed, or away from the female, he marches quietly 

 along, and the mirrors of his wings are not visible. His tail 

 forms two vertical planes, one over the other ; the secondaries 

 of the wings are inclined on the length of the tail, and very 

 much exceed the lateral quills of the last. 



