MALAY ARGUS PHEASANT 



Argusianus argus (Linnd) 



Names. — Generic: Argusianus, \jdX\r\ adj. from Argus, the original preoccupied generic name. Specific: 

 argus, the mythological shepherd with a hundred eyes. English : Malay or Great or Northern Argus Pheasant. 

 French : Argus geant. German : Argusfasan or Arguspfau. Vernacular : Kuang, Kuau kuang (Negritos) ; 

 Kuak (northern Sakais of Upper Perak) ; Kwak (central Sakai of Batang Padang) ; Chip Kuang (Besisi of 

 Selangor and Negri Sembilan) ; Kuau (Jakun of Pahang) ; Kuang raya, big pheasant ; Kuang rimba, forest 

 pheasant (North Malay) ; Kyek-wah (Siamese) ; Koeweau (Sumatra). 



Type. — Locality: "Habitat in Tataria Climensi." Describer : Linnd Place of description : Sys. Nat. L 

 1766, p. 272. 



Brief Description. — Male : Head and neck bare for the most part, and blue in colour ; top of the head 

 and nape, with short, black feathers ; general colour above black, mottled and dotted with various shades of buff; 

 lower back and rump rufous buff, sparsely dotted with dark brown ; long central tail-feathers dark grey and 

 chestnut, finely dotted with white ; primaries fawn colour, with rows of oblong black spots, a rufous band finely 

 dotted with white on the basal part of the inner web ; secondaries with outer webs decorated with a row of 

 large ocelli, bounded by black, yellow in the centre, shading into white and ' reddish brown ; under parts rich 

 chestnut, variegated with wavy bars and markings of black and buff. Female : Long, spiny nuchal crest ; neck 

 chestnut, slightly mottled with black ; upper parts black, vermiculated on the upper body and coarsely hieroglyphed 

 on the secondaries with pale buff; primaries chestnut, marked with black; below black, everywhere vermiculated 

 with rufous and reddish buff. 



Range. — Malay Peninsula, from lower Tenasserim and Siam southward ; Sumatra. 



THE BIRD IN ITS HAUNTS 



I CARRIED my big bundle of green cloth, brass rods and field-glasses up the last 

 steep slope and threw them down in utter exhaustion. Three minutes I allowed myself 

 to rest, and then swiftly erected my umbrella tent, stretched the guy ropes and crept 

 within. I was on a jungle plateau on the eastern slope of one of the Pahang Mountains 

 in the Malay Peninsula, and well within the range of the Argus Pheasant. I was far 

 from any habitation of natives, and the jungle was quiet and apparently at rest. But 

 this was a superficial view. I soon saw that there was no rest for me until I had further 

 protected myself. Leeches innumerable were headed my way. So I slipped out and 

 hastily dug a trench around the tent, knowing that the little villains would find difficulty 

 in crossing the gorge of crumbly earth. 



From two of my peep-holes I could command a considerable extent of partly open 

 slope, half-way down which several great fern-coloured boulders upreared themselves. 

 Behind was dense jungle, and to my left a feathery tangle of tree-ferns. 



For some time after I entered the observation tent it was difficult to realize that I 

 was in the heart of the tropics, less than four degrees from the equator. It was an 

 afternoon in late October, and a cold damp wind was blowing, soughing through the 

 trees overhead with a low, mournful roar. Every gust brought down a shower of 

 yellow and maroon leaves about the tent. Surely they, like yonder line of crinkled 



IIS 



