chap, in.] THE ARGUS PHEASANT. 51 



having made a bed of twigs and branches over which we 

 laid our blankets, we passed a very comfortable night. Our 

 porters had followed us after a rest, bringing only their rice 

 to cook, and luckily we did not require the baggage they 

 left behind them. In the morning I caught a few butter- 

 flies and beetles, and my friend got a few land-shells ; and 

 we then descended, bringing with us some specimens of 

 the ferns and pitcher-plants of Padang-batu. 



The place where we had 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 forests 

 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 although he had been for twenty years shooting 

 birds in these forests he had never yet shot one, and had 

 never even 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 harmonize well with the dead leaves among 



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