THE ARGUS PHEASANT. 135 



The great peculiarity of the birds of this genus is that the secondary flight 

 feathers of the wings are excessively enlarged and lengthened, being in the males 

 double the length of the primaries, and covered on the outer webs with the singular 

 ocellated spots from whence the bird derives its name. In the male, also, the two 

 central tail feathers are extremely elongated, and project in a very singular manner 

 beyond the others. 



UntU recently the Argus gigcmteus was the only known species in the genus ; 

 but another smaller Argus {A. grayi) is now known by specimens in the British 

 Museum ; and the existence of one or two others is suspected from specimens of 

 feathers, differing from those of the known species. 



The great Argus is over five feet in length, the tail being three feet eight 

 inches long. The prevailing colour of the plumage is ochreous red or brown, 

 unrelieved by any lively or brilliant shade. The tints are distributed with so much 

 harmony, and covered with such a profusion of small spots, or even points, 

 sometimes darker and sometimes lighter than the ground, that they produce the 

 most agreeable effect. Its long and broad secondary feathers are covered in their 

 entire length by a row of large eye-like spots, closely imitating half globes; the 

 colour of these, as that of the plumage, has, however, something resembling ancient 

 bronze. The primary feathers, with whitish external barbs, speckled with brown, 

 and with inner barbs of the colour of a fallow deer, dotted with white, have their 

 shafts of the most beautiful sky blue. The naked skin of the face and neck is 

 bright blue, and contrasts well with the bronze hue of the plumage. The female 

 neither exhibits the extraordinary development of the tail and wings nor the eye-Uke 

 spots of the male. Her plumage is darker, and the total length is only twenty-six 

 inches. 



The two specimens (a male and female) figured in the engraving had been 

 living some few years in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park when the 

 first edition of this work was published, at which time only five specimens of 

 the Argus had been seen alive in Europe; since then it has been more frequently 

 imported, and a dozen adult specimens have been received in the Zoological Gardens, 

 and several young have been bred there. In addition to those in the Regent's Park, 

 others have lived in the possession of the King of Italy, and in the Zoological 

 Gardens at Amsterdam. 



The ornamentation of the secondary wing feathers in the male Argus is one 

 of the most wonderful in the whole animal kingdom; the ornamental marks are 

 usually termed ocelli or eyes, but they much more closely resemble baU and socket 

 ornaments. As these ocelli are not visible when the wing is closed, the mode in 

 which they were displayed has hitherto rather been conjectured than described, 

 and even in recent works the bird has been portrayed displaying its plumage in 

 a perfectly unnatural manner. 



