CHAPTER XXIII. 



PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE AVIARY 

 (CONTINUED). 



THE AEGUS PHEASANT (ARGUS 



GIGANTEU8]. 



I HE Argus Pheasant, as it was termed by Linnseus, is 

 undoubtedly one of tbe most magnificent of the 

 family of the pheasants. Its native haunts are the 

 forests of Malacca and Siam, and it is also found in 

 North-western Borneo. It is so extremely shy in its 

 habits that it is rarely, if ever, shot, even by native 

 hunters, who nevertheless manage to secure numbers by 

 snaring the birds. 



Mr. Wallace, in his most interesting work on the Malay 

 Archipelago, describes his journey into the heart of the 

 Argus country, and, writing of Mount Ophir, fifty miles east- 

 ward of Malacca, states : — ■ 



" The place where we first encamped, at the foot of the 

 mountain, being very gloomy, we chose another in a kind 

 of swamp, near a stream overgrown with zingiberaceous 

 plants, in which a clearing was easily made. Here our men 

 built two little huts without sides, that would just shelter us 

 from the rain, and we lived in them for a week, shooting and 

 insect-hunting, and roaming about the forest at the foot of 

 the mountain. This was the country of the great Argus 

 Pheasant, and we continually heard its cry. On asking the 

 old Malay to try and shoot one for me, he told me that, 

 though he had been twenty years shooting birds in these 



