MALAY OCELLATED PHEASANT 



Rheinardms nigrescejts Rothschild 



Names. — Specific : nigrescetts, Latin, dusky. English : Malay or Dusky Ocellated Pheasant ; Mountain 

 Argus Pheasant. 



Type.— Locality : Ulu Pahang, Eastern Malay Peninsula. Describer : Lord Rothschild. Place of De- 

 scription : Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, XII. 1902, p. 55. Location of Type : Tring Museum. 



Brief Description.— Male : In general, darker than the Annam Ocellated Pheasant. Dorsal spots are 

 white and round instead of buffy and irregular. Rump markings less numerous, larger and whiter. Outer web of 

 central rectrices more of a blackish-brown and more uniform. Female: Similar to the female Annam Ocellated 

 Pheasant, slightly more buffy on the head and ventral plumage. 



Range.— Central Malay Peninsula. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



The few known specimens of the Malay Ocellated Pheasant have come from the 

 central mountains of the Malay Peninsula : central Pahang, eastern Perak and south 

 Kelantan. It does not ascend to a greater height than four thousand feet, nor does it 

 descend to the low country outside the mountains, although it may be found along the 

 lower river valleys of the interior. Both Robinson and myself have heard its call near 

 Kuala Lipis, Pahang, at only about four hundred feet elevation. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT 



Along the central Malayan range of mountains on the Pahang side rise innumerable 

 little streams, mere rills at first, which soon gain in volume, rill added to rill, until a 

 good-sized stream bubbles over the rocks and slides smoothly over fallen bamboo stems. 

 If one does not mind wet feet, these stream-beds are by far the most convenient means 

 of exploring this region. Often the sides of the ravines are so precipitous that it is 

 impossible to pass across or along them. 



For two nights I had slung my hammock from the giant grasses beside one of these 

 tiny Pahang tributaries and had listened to a new sound. Sometimes, at frequent 

 intervals for a half-hour at a time, the loud call would ring out. It was almost the call 

 of the argus, but there was a strange intonation which attracted my attention at once. 

 I realized at last that it was the evening call of the Malayan Ocellated Pheasant. Of 

 this note Robinson says : "The call is very different to that of the common species, and 

 is readily recognized when once heard, though it is hard to put the difference into 

 words." 



While I never heard the calls of both species of argus in the same evening, yet the 



difference is very marked. There is a muffled resonance about the cry of the Ocellated . 



Pheasant which the cry of the common argus lacks ; it sounds fully as loud, but seems 



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