208 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums.  [Vot. XI, 
the fact that within the course of six days I trapped seven 
birds at a single station. The Argus Pheasant is one of 
the most cautious and shy birds. There are very few 
people, even amongst the natives who frequent the forest, 
who have seen an Argus Pheasant running free. During 
all the years of my travels I only once saw an Argus, a hen, 
on the path from Muara Sako to Korinchi. The birds are 
easily trapped, especially in the mating season, if the snares 
are put round the well-known dancing places. In Minang- 
kabau the dancing places are called galanggang kuau and 
in the Ophir Districts sésaren. The hens are much more 
numerous than the cocks; it is therefore probable that 
a covey consists of one cock with-several females. 
I never saw any ill effect resulting from the consump- 
tion of the flesh of the Argus Pheasant, as has repeatedly 
been reported from Borneo and ascribed to the Strichnos 
fruits, which the birds seem to consume with impunity. 
The Minangkabau name kuau is an exact imitation 
of the call of the male. 
TURNICIDAE. 
11. Turnix pugnax (Temm.). 
é. Buo, Padang Highlands, 280 M. 
36,49. Muara Kiawai, Ophir Districts, 40 M. 
Male: iris cream coloured, upper mandible yellow 
with blackish grey tip; feet, claws greenish yellow, the 
articulations of the digits and the claws somewhat grey. 
(Of No. 3717 the feet were light yellow). 
Female: iris cream coloured, bill yellow, tipped 
blackish, feet and claws same as male. 
Wings, 6 75 subad., 78, 80, 83; 2 85, 86, 87, 87 mm. 
These birds are more rufous above than the form 
occurring in the Malay Peninsula, T. atrogularis (Eyton) 
in which the females have a rufous collar and, apparently, 
a smaller extent of black on throat and foreneck. They may 
belong to the typical Javanese form of which we have no 
specimens. 
As quail-fights with money wagers are in great favour 
with the Malays, the females are trapped in little cages 
with another female as decoy. 
The general Minangkabau name is puyuah, but the 
natives distinguish two varieties: puyuah bamban and 
puyuah bariang. The latter is said to have more black 
on the throat and to possess a smaller bill. Both these 
hames apply to the females as the males are no good for 
fighting and are of no interest to the natives. 
