134 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



They take the place, in flight, of the herons which are absent as far as my observation 

 went. A brace of bluish ducks — apparently larger than teal — flew ahead of me, and a 

 few distant shrills announced the evening concert of the great five o'clock cicadas. 



Then came, unannounced, the sight of sights. A few paces to the right of the 

 wild boar's wallow my eye caught a movement against the water-washed bare face 

 of clay. Fortunately I was looking along the tops of the barrels of my stereos, a habit 

 of mine when locating anything by eyesight the finding of which requires instant but 

 inconspicuous adjustment of the glasses. I pushed them up before my eyes, and there 

 sprang into clear-cut delineation what my eyes had refused to separate from the shadows 

 of the bank. A male Argus was drinking from a rain-pool — so it proved when I later 

 investigated — a yard or more from the roiled current of the river. It was half crouched, 

 and the motion of the head, alternately raised and lowered, was all that betrayed the 

 bird. The long wings, the gracefully twisted tail-feathers, were as motionless as if 

 carved in cameo against the earthen bank. I watched it thus for a minute, two minutes, 

 then my attention wandered momentarily to something near at hand, and when I looked 

 back the bird was just disappearing. At least I had seen a wild Argus, and brief 

 though the glimpse had been, I felt a great superiority to my fellow white men the 

 world over, who had not seen an Argus Pheasant in its native home. 



Then in the dusk there passed on the stream a little model boat floating uncertainly 

 along, carefully carven, with many little figures standing bravely up, looking woodenly 

 toward their fate in the distant sea. This was the work of native Dyaks, who prepare 

 them with the greatest care when a family is attacked with illness, and set them free, 

 hoping the bad spirit will accompany these " doubles " of the afflicted. These little spirit 

 craft have been washed ashore as far away as Singapore. 



The stars burned out brightly, and the wet mists of night settled down before I 

 followed the little Dyak boat and drifted round the last bend into sight of my canoe. 

 On the beach were my dozen native paddlers, and their fire lit up the circle of their great 

 bronze bodies — a wild sight in this wild country. The light also was reflected from 

 the long, low, thatched canoe shelter which beckoned me to slumber. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



The Bornean Argus does not seem to occur near the coast, nor in any low, swampy 

 regions, but it is generally distributed in the interior, especially in rolling, hilly or 

 mountainous regions, and always, of course, in the deepest jungles, never in open or 

 sparsely forested country. In Dutch Borneo we have many records, such as Mounts 

 Kenepai and Liang Koeboeng, and on the upper Mahakam at Dingai and on the 

 Brunuei, Blu-u and Tepai Rivers ; on the Padas River, in British North Borneo, at 

 Bintulu, on the Mengalong River, Mount Dulit, where it ranges up to two thousand 

 feet and probably higher, and Silam, while I have found it generally ranging over central 

 Sarawak close up to the Dutch border. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



At Kapit, the last fort of Rajah Brooke on the Rejang River, I first received news 

 of the Argus Pheasant, and a few miles farther upstream, where I started the natives 



