CHAPTER XXIIi. 



PHEASANTS ADAPTED TO THE AVIARY 



(CONTINUED). 



THE ARGUS PHEASANT {ARGUS 

 GIGANTEUS). 



^"^Si ^^^^ Argus Pheasant, as it was termed l)y Ijinna3us, is 



J^§|, undoubtedly one of the luobt magmticent of the 



vj^" '" family of pheasants. Its native haunts are the 



Vr forests of Malacca and Siam, the Malay Peninsula, 



'; and Southern Tenasserini ; it is also fouud in Sumatra. 



It is so extremely shy in its liahits that it is rarely, if 



ever, shot, even by native hunters, who nevertbeless manage 



to secure numbers by snaring the birds. 



Dr. A. E.. Wallace, in his most interesting work on the 

 Malay Archipelago, describes his journey into the heart of 

 the Argus country, and writing of Mount OjDhir, fifty miles 

 eastward of Malacca, states : 



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

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

 of swamp, near a stream overgrow'u with zingiberaceous 

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

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

 fi'oni 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 vears shooting birds in these 



