BORNEAN CRESTED FIREBACK 



Lophura ignita (Shaw) 



Names. — Specific : ignita, from the Latin ignis, fire, with reference to the fiery metallic back and abdomen 

 plumage. English : Bornean Crested Fireback ; Fire-bellied Pheasant. French : Faisan a dos roux. German : 

 Borneo Fasan. Native : Sempidan (Sea-Dyak). 



Brief Description. — Male : Plumage in general black, glossed over most of the feathers with purplish blue. 

 The back, rump, the entire belly and sides fiery bronze-red. Two inner pairs of tail-feathers, and inner webs of the 

 third pair rich buff. A long, bare-shafted, tufted crest. Facial skin blue, legs and feet reddish. Female : General 

 colour above rich dark chestnut, faintly mottled with black, neck paler chestnut ; chin and throat white ; breast 

 chestnut, edged laterally with white ; remaining under-parts dark brown, widely margined all around with white. 

 Facial area blue ; legs and feet reddish. 



Range. — Borneo in general ; introduced into the Island of Banka. 



THE BIRD IN ITS HAUNTS 



The home' of the Bornean Crested Fireback in the interior of Sarawak is amid 

 low, swampy undergrowths, where the soggy, matted leaves give forth no sound to 

 the step of bird or animal. In such a spot in the afternoon when the round sun- 

 spots of noon have given place to long pencils of light, the splendid Firebacks come 

 forth from the maze of calamus and other thorn-plants among which they spend the 

 heat of the day and make their way to the little gravel water-courses which 

 meander down to the rivers. 



I remember one such little glade, densely embowered with overhanging 

 vegetation. A rivulet trickles through it and between it, and the river is a dense 

 impenetrable tangle of calamus, bamboo and thorny fern. Here a family of Fire- 

 backs elected to spend the moulting season. Although not far from the cleared 

 ground around a native Dyak house, they have chosen wisely, for just beyond is a 

 Dyak burial-ground, mounds covered with matting and a palm-thatch shelter. On 

 the mat are dishes, and some Chinese jars of considerable beauty, filled with food 

 and water for the comfort of the dead. No one but a white " Tuan " who fears not 

 evil spirits would come here, so the pheasants are safe. 



In such a place I watched silently on a certain 20th of July. I was perched 



between two great trunks, eight or ten feet from the ground, partly hidden by a 



drapery of lianas. A pair of rufous cuckoos were toying with small twigs and sticks 



just overhead, hinting that they have not reached the stage of complete cuculine 



parasitism, but had in preparation the flimsy type of nest which some of this family 



still fashion. They took no notice of me in their curious squawks and trills of 



love-making — sounds so unlike their usual monotonous note. A broad-bill, with 



plum-coloured waistcoat, black head and collar, and dark wings with yellow trimmings, 



watched for and caught all the insects which flew past a branch in front. A crash 



of twigs and small branches drew my eyes upward, and there I saw a tupaia or 

 VOL. II 129 s 



