44 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 



Tiigh price it fetches would vender it a profitable 

 as well as harmless inmate of our jungles. 



Gray's Argus- 



Argusianits grayi, Brit. Mus. Cat., Birds, Vol. XXII, 



P- 365- 



Only one other species of true Argus is certainly Imown, from 



Borneo, which is rather smaller than our bird, but does not differ 



much from it otherwise, being merely redder on the breast, 



"with paler mottling above. 



Double-spotted Argus. 



Argusianus bipunctaius, Brit. Mus. Cat., Birds, 

 Vol. XXII, p. 366. 



There is in existence, however, a, piece of a primary quill 

 ■feather, now in the British Museum, on the evidence of which a 

 presumed third species has been named. In this specimen the 

 -white-dotted cinnamon patch is found on both sides of the shaft, 

 which is slighter than that of a corresponding quill from the 

 common Argus. It is not known what the other feathers of 

 this specimen were like or where it came from, and it might 

 have been merely a " sport ; " if so, it was certainly a progres- 

 -sive one, tending to greater ornamentation than the ordinary 

 species possesses. 



The Crested Argus. 



Rheinardtius ocellatus, Brit. Mus. Cat., Vol. XXII, 

 P- 367. 



This Argus is of a different type of form from tlie typical Argus 

 above described, having wings of ordinary size in both sexes, 

 which are also provided with a large erect tuft-crest on tlie back 

 of the head. The male has all the tail-feathers very long, broad 

 and pointed. 



The colouration is very complicated, being of a brown, diversi- 

 fied with numerous fine chestnut and white markings in the m^lle, 

 and black and buff pencilling in the hen, but tlie characteristic 

 shape is quite distinctive. The male's tail is five feet long ; 

 that of the hen is about fourteen inches. The species is found 

 in the Tonquin mountains ; a race with darker upper parts, and 



