CHAPTER XX. 



PHEASANTS ADAPTED EOE THE AYIARY (CONTINUED). 



THE AEGUS PHEASANT {ABQTIS 

 GIGANTHUS). 



HE Argus Pheasant, as it was termed by Linnseus, is undoubtedly- 

 one of the most magnificent, and at the same time, in the 

 living state, one of the least known, 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 eastward 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 forests, he had never yet shot one, and had never seen one except after it 

 had been caught. The bird is so exceedingly shy and wary, and runs along the 

 ground in the densest parts of the forest so quickly, that it is impossible to get 

 near it ; and its sober colours and rich eye-like spots, which are so ornamental 

 when seen in a museum, must harmonise well with the dead leaves among which 

 it dwells, and render it very inconspicuous. All the specimens sold in Malacca are 

 caught in snares, and my informant, though he had shot none, had snared plenty." 



