MALAY ARGUS PHEASANT 125 



in this object. I have described how the bird allows not a leaf or twig to remain upon 

 its jungle arena over-night, and how sedulously it strives to keep every bit of ddbris 

 away from its small clearing. At the edges of this area I have often seen stems of some 

 tough woody growth which protruded somewhat toward the clearing, which were barked 

 and scraped apparently by the efforts of the bird to uproot them. The mould beneath 

 showed traces of the long-continued trampling of the bird, as it circled the obnoxious 

 obstacle, striving ever to get a better purchase. 



The Besisi, the Sakai and in some districts the Malays themselves take a cruel 

 advantage of this perseverance. Several long, slender slivers of bamboo are split off, 

 the edges of the silicious outer tissue being sharp as razors. One of these is bent double 

 and sunk deeply into the ground near the centre of the pheasant's dancing-place. The 

 bird, on discovering this unsightly thing, an apparently new-sprouted vegetable growth, 

 attacks it at once and from all sides attempts to uproot it. Its bill slips over the 

 polished surface, and sooner or later, in its vigorous efforts, the sharp edges come into 

 contact with the thin bare skin of the neck, and it is seldom that the bird is not found 

 dead, or dying from the loss of blood, near its display ground. 



Doubt has been cast upon this method of taking the bird, but several times I have 

 found bamboo slivers such as I have described, twice in Pahang and once in Sarawak, 

 and I can assure the reader that it would have been almost impossible to pull them up 

 with the bare hands without cutting the flesh to the bone, so cunningly were they twisted, 

 the sharpened edges curving spirally and affording no point of attack free from the 

 cutting surfaces. As far as considering this as a ruse to deceive prospective 

 Mohammedan purchasers and eaters of the pheasants into the belief that snared birds 

 had been bled to death in the conventional way, this seems rather far-fetched. Even 

 before I found actual evidence I saw no reason to disbelieve the account, especially as it 

 is a common tale both in the Malay Peninsula and in Borneo, and in many places from 

 which Mohammedans are absent. Nooses are sometimes attached to a peg driven into 

 the floor of the arena, and traps set in such a place are invariably sprung when once the 

 bird gains courage to begin its attempts on the peg. The bent sapling curving above 

 or the suspended log, are sometimes, however, so feared by the pheasant that it will not 

 enter the clearing. 



Still another count against the Mohammedan theory mentioned above is a wide- 

 spread belief among the Malays of some parts of the Peninsula that both the Argus and 

 the peacock are unclean birds, of which under no circumstances will they partake. The 

 turkey is included also. The idea seems to be limited to those birds which erect the 

 tail fan-wise and strut, as these Malays will eat junglefowl and firebacks without 

 hesitation. 



Many of the aborigines also believe that the Argus is immune to the poisoned 

 darts of their blowpipes. But as they say the birds become very sick when struck, the 

 immunity is probably due to the large size or the protective power of its great wing 

 quills. It is said that the wild Sakais not uncommonly capture the Argus chicks and 

 bring them up with their domestic poultry. 



The Argus Pheasant enters quite prominently into the life and legends of the 

 natives of the Malay Peninsula, especially the wilder tribes, such as the Sakai, who 

 have not come intimately into contact with the white races. 



