BORNEAN ARGUS PHEASANT 135 



trapping, I secured my first specimens. At this point on the Rejang, Dyak communal 

 houses were built every few miles along the bank and much of the intervening country 

 was of second growth, hinting of former native occupation and clearings. Here the 

 general percentage of pheasants was : firebacks 88 per cent., whitetails 6 per cent., Argus 

 6 per cent. Seventy miles farther inland, in the more hilly or mountainous region 

 along the Mujong, where the jungle was almost unbroken and Dyak villages very few in 

 number and long distances apart, the percentages were appreciably altered : firebacks 20 

 per cent., whitetails 15 per cent., and Argus 65 per cent. The first is not so radically 

 disturbed by the presence of man, and indeed these relatives of Gemiaeus will even feed 

 on the paddy of the Dyaks. The whitetails are much more intolerant of mankind, and 

 retreat as the savages advance, while the Argus, keenest sensed of all, will have none of 

 the interlopers, and is to be found only in undisturbed forest. 



The limited home range of each adult male is well shown by the continued effects of 

 trapping in any one locality. At one stop on the Mujong River I had all the hunters in 

 a small village of Dyaks out trapping on the east side of the river. They ranged 

 through the jungle for a radius of about four or five miles, and in a few days brought in 

 five adult birds. Another was caught some time later, but no more. Several females 

 and two young males were then snared, and after that not an Argus was to be obtained 

 in this one district. The birds wander very little from their dancing-places, and it is 

 probable that for a long time after our visit no adult males would push in from the 

 neighbouring jungle, the arenas being gradually taken up by young males, and the 

 females coming slowly in response to the calls of these birds. 



Away from the rivers and the vicinity of natives, there was seldom a night when 

 one could not hear Argus calling. As a rule they seem to live a considerable distance 

 apart, but once I found four dancing-places, three of which were occupied, within a 

 circle the diameter of which was not more than one mile. I think that in no instance 

 was more than one bird snared in the same place, and never were two caught in 

 adjoining traps ; a rather clear commentary on the unsocial character of these birds. A 

 flock of Argus would be an anomaly indeed, and a pair is a rarely witnessed association. 

 What I have written concerning the voice of the Malayan bird applies equally to this 

 species. The Dyaks usually give the note as mow-a, that being the nearest to their 

 peculiar enunciation of sounds. More than once I have known an Argus to call loudly 

 once or twice even at midday, on hearing the report of a gun, and occasionally during 

 the nightly downpour, keouw would ring out after a loud clap of thunder. 



When watching an Argus climbing up to its roost one night, from my roost in an 

 adjoining tree, my eye caught a dark mass just above the pheasant. I could not make 

 out whether it was a bird or beast, or merely a dense tangle of leaves. When the Argus 

 took a leap to the next rung in its arboreal ladder, the dark mass suddenly took to itself 

 wings and flew with a swish of pinions and a shrill cry, proving to be one of the smaller 

 hawks which has a strength of voice out of all proportion to its size. It must have been 

 concealed by the tree trunk from the pheasant, for the sudden outburst seemed to take 

 the Argus completely by surprise, and with a backward leap, forcing its tail-feathers 

 into a sharp bend as it turned, it also flew. I was surprised to see that it hardly lost 

 any altitude, beating vigorously and evenly through the glade. As far as I could 

 follow it, it constantly gained speed and was still well above the ground. Such flight 



