MALAY ARGUS PHEASANT 129 



a pair of Argus. After several matings, the female of this pair laid her first egg on 

 May 1 8th, and two days later the second. These eggs, dropped anywhere and 

 abandoned, were entrusted to a strong Barbezieux hen, and on the 15th of April one 

 young bird hatched, the first egg being infertile. The young Argus at birth was the 

 size of a young chicken, well built and apparently strong, but the remainder of April was 

 cold, and as the hen failed to warm the chick sufficiently, it was necessary to place it in 

 an artificial brooder, and to feed it forcibly with custard. It did not survive these 

 vicissitudes and died when fifteen days old. 



The male Argus, whose advances did not cease until September, again paid court 

 to his mate, and a second laying of two eggs occurred on the 28th of April and the 

 1st of May respectively. These eggs were deposited in a little hollowed-out place dug 

 by the female Argus herself, near the feeding-place. She began to sit, and, in order to 

 protect her from interference by the male, she was surrounded with brushwood. She 

 sat but nine days, however, when the eggs were at once given to a domestic hen, which 

 hatched two splendid young on May 26th, and these were raised practically as are the 

 eperonniers. 



A third laying of eggs took place on the 8th and loth of June. It might have been 

 possible to have obtained a fourth laying without exhausting the female, but the season 

 was advanced. So this time the male was placed by himself in a neighbouring cage, 

 after which the hen began sitting. '' Celle-ci reprit le nid apr^s le depart du male, le 

 garda sans lever, ni pour boire ni manger ni se vider, jusqu a la naissance de ses deux 

 jeunes." In support of this final remarkable statement we read in another account of the 

 breeding of the Argus that when the hen begins to sit on her nest, " ne le quitte ni pour 

 boire, ni pour manger, ni pour se vider " : and again, M. Fauque assures us : " Pendant 

 les vingt-quatre jours qua durd I'incubation, la femelle ne s'est pas levde et n'a pris 

 aucune nourriture." It is difficult to credit this statement and to see how it is possible 

 that the bird, especially after she had laid six eggs, could have sufficient strength to 

 enable her to go without food and drink for a space of three and a half weeks. I am 

 inclined to think she must have taken nourishment at night or at some other time when 

 her absence was not observed. This is no reflection on the reputation which the Argus 

 mother holds among all who have bred this species, of being an ideal mother and the 

 most excellent of sitting birds. She is always careful not to tread on the young chicks, 

 and feeds them assiduously, presenting tiny bits of custard, ants' eggs, meal-worms and 

 other small insects which are thrown to her, in her beak to the young, nor does she her- 

 self eat until they are fed. This is a very important matter — the exact method of presen- 

 tation of food — for like their near relatives the dperonniers, the young birds, during the 

 first ten or fifteen days of their life, will eat only what is presented in the mother's beak. 

 If, as occasionally happens, their foster-mother fails in this, they must be fed by hand, 

 the bits of custard and meal-worms being offered on the points of a pair of forceps. 

 After three weeks all danger from this source is past. 



Their own mother hovers them carefully at first, and at the end of a week or more, 

 when they can fly, she leads them up to a perch and there shelters them with her wings. 

 If low perches are available, the chicks can flutter upward even when less than a week 

 old. So when the Argus mother is caring for the young birds it is necessary only to 

 throw the food to her, and she will take entire charge of its distribution to each, and will 



VOL. IV s 



