BORNEAN ARGUS PHEASANT 141 



aspiring young males where they may find a vent for their fighting instincts. It seems 

 improbable that a male of such immaturity as this one could ever overcome an adult in 

 full vigour, but it shows that the adult birds have to defend the rights to their particular 

 arena against wandering males of all ages. Not only this, but it is very probable 

 that each adult male has a preserve of greater or less extent, a sanctuary which he 

 considers inviolable and which he keeps free of intruders. For I found more than one 

 arena, freshly begun, with the beginning of a clearing, and in one of these I found signs 

 of a struggle, and afterwards there was no further signs of preparation. It seems 

 probable that a young or at least a newly arrived male had begun an arena within the 

 prohibited distance of an occupied one, and the owner had driven him away. The 

 nearest arena in this case was barely fifty yards off, much closer than I have ever known 

 occupied dancing-places to be. 



In this instance the young pheasant had worked three days before it was driven 

 away, and I was greatly interested to be able to study the method of clearing. The first 

 time I noticed it, I saw that most of the leaves and ferns in an area of several square 

 yards were dead or dying. A close examination revealed the fact that a great many 

 had already been picked off and carried to the periphery, showing that there had been 

 some sort of definite idea as to the general size. The glade was free of trees and 

 throughout its extent there was only one growth of serious size. This was a woody sapling 

 an inch through, and the choosing of this glade, with such an obstruction, at first seemed 

 to me to indicate that the labourer was young or inexperienced. It appeared impossible 

 that a pheasant could dispose of such a sapling. I found a clue to the possible treat- 

 ment in such a case in two arenas many miles up-river from this region. Here there 

 were stubs of saplings. One had fallen and was still lying partly in the cleared zone, 

 the other had been broken off and carried bodily to the edge. I carefully examined the 

 method of attack and found that long before the bark had been pecked away as high as 

 the bird could reach. This must have resulted in the death of the young tree, and its 

 subsequent destruction would have quickly ensued. Any dead branch or tree has but 

 short shrift in the jungle. Insects attack it at once and quickly reduce it to its original 

 inorganic elements. This seemed to have been the case with the sapling which had 

 broken off and had been carried from the clearing. It was riddled with worm-holes and 

 was fairly rotten. But the other was much fresher, and though fallen, its fall was 

 probably the direct result of the indefatigable labour of the bird. For the tissues 

 at the breaking point were frayed and teased out, and this persistent shredding, this 

 beaver-like working at one spot, had at last cut through the stem. When the main 

 stem falls, and is disposed of, the stub is destroyed bit by bit until it is level with the 

 ground. The thought of a bird felling a tree seems the figment of a disordered brain, 

 and yet these one-inch saplings were, in comparison with the size of the Argus, growths 

 of no mean size. 



I have said that on the first day many leaves were found plucked and piled around 

 the outer rim of the proposed clearing. The moss seemed also to be pecked or scratched 

 up and many of the fern fronds were broken and hanging loosely. Near one side were 

 two feathers of the bird, revealing the identity of the worker. On the second afternoon, 

 while I could see that more work had been done, yet the change was general and slight, 

 but some time during the succeeding twenty-four hours the bird must have laboured 



