Rosinson & Kioss : Birds of West Sumatra. 207 
the series from Tanangtalu and Mt. Talamau they are the 
sharpest, those from the other localities are intermediate. 
The difference, however, is very small. 
Difference in colour between the sexes is not noticeable 
except for the tails. 
Description of ? chick: like the adult but the bars 
and vermiculations much finer. Top of head mixed with 
ochraceous, sides of head, throat and foreneck ochraceous. 
The birds live in secondary and in primeval forest and 
are excedingly shy and cautious. They are therefore seldom 
seen, although at an altitude from 1000-1400 M. they are 
very numerous. The opinion of Robinson and Kloss, that 
they are widely but not numerously distributed, is to be 
attributed to the fact, that these gentlemen when collecting 
in Sumatra made little or no use of snares, in which these 
birds can easily be caught in fair quantities. From the 
present series only two were shot, all the others were snared. 
In some of my stations we caught so many specimens, 
that I refrained from preserving all the skins. The flesh 
of this bird is rather tough. 
Contents of stomach: very hard kernels and small 
pebbles. 
Females, 12th May and 24th August, had developed 
ovaries. 
10. Argusianus argus argus (Linn.). 
8,69. Muara Sako, Indrapura, 300 M. 
é imm., 2. Mt. Ophir, 300 M. 
Male and female: iris brownish grey, naked skin of 
head dark greyish blue, bill dirty white, cere blackish grey, 
claws dirty white. 
Immature male : as above but the cere flesh-colour. 
Contents of stomach: round seeds of very large 
diameter. 
I doubt very much if the Peacock occurs in Sumatra. 
I was told over and over again by Europeans that they 
had seen or heard peacocks in Sumatra, but on closer 
investigation these so-called peacocks invariably proved to 
be Argus Pheasants. I am of opinion, that until an 
authentic specimen from Sumatra has been seen by an 
ornithologist Pavo muticus should not appear in a list of 
Sumatran species. Reports of laymen on this subject 
should be received with the utmost caution. 
I have found the Argus Pheasant only in the outer 
range of the Barisan Mountains, the one nearest to the 
westcoast. There it is very abundant, which is proved by 
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