BORNEAN ARGUS PHEASANT 137 



The dominance of ants in the food, all but one of the birds having fed upon them, 

 is interesting, and some of these insects had extremely poisonous stings, the fire-ants 

 being well represented. The recognizable species among those taken from the crops 

 of the Argus proved to be Polyrliachis bihamata Drury, Bothroponera tridentata 

 Forel, Diacainma intricatum F. Smith and Odontopoiiera transversa F. Smith, while 

 the giant ant, the kind which is so common in the tropics wandering solitarily up 

 and down the trunks of trees, is Cainponotus gigas Fab., var. borneensis Forel. But 

 the most noticeable feature is the total absence of termites, or white ants as they 

 are usually but wrongly called. These insects are the main item of animal diet of 

 tropical pheasants, and for the Argus to be the only exception, and to choose the hard- 

 bodied, true ants, armed with offensive stings and formic acid, is unaccountable. 

 Owing to our ignorance of the nuts and seeds of tropical trees I have been unable 

 to identify a single fruit upon which the Argus feeds, although some are most 

 characteristic, bizarre in shape and peculiar in texture of husk. From the character 

 of the food we know that this pheasant is altogether a ground feeder, that most of 

 its vegetable food is picked up from where it has fallen and its animal food is found 

 on the ground, or, as in the case of the wire worms, is scratched out of decayed logs. 



In connection with the food of Argus Pheasants there is a point of unusual 

 interest, which very possibly may have a more important bearing than we know upon 

 its life as a whole. This is the fact that its flesh is undoubtedly poisonous and unfit 

 for food, at certain places or at times of the year when, apparently, it has been feeding 

 upon some fruit or seeds which lends this noxious quality to its flesh. I partook of 

 Argus Pheasants — in fact for one week when no other flesh was available I became 

 heartily tired of them — but I experienced no ill effects whatever. But I heard direct 

 from several reliable sources of toxic poisoning in the case of both Englishmen and 

 natives, and more than one explorer has given a detailed account of similar experiences. 

 The Dyaks are familiar with this fact, and told me that they know the very fruit in 

 question. They say that other ground birds, porcupines and other rodents become 

 likewise infected. In one case four natives and a European all became violently ill 

 after eating an Argus, the sickness lasting four days or more. The thought comes, 

 though merely as a suggestion, that the ability to devour such fruit on the part of the 

 Argus might be a factor in preventing certain enemies from attacking it. Certainly 

 if the internal economy of a civet cat is at all like that of a human being, one such 

 experience would cure the animal of ever killing another Argus. The intricacies of the 

 inter-relationships of wild creatures are so complex that such a thing is not so impossible 

 as it seems, but if so, it must remain for some future observer, with even better 

 opportunities than I had, to clothe this suggestion with the first support of evidence. 



Much of our knowledge of the more intimate details of the wild life of the Argus 

 Pheasant has heretofore been based on circumstantial evidence. We know that it makes 

 a dancing-place, summons the female and there displays before her, but of the details we 

 have had no direct account. I hoped to see something of this wonderful phase of the 

 bird's life, and was successful in so doing, though it took all the woodcraft I possessed, 

 and taught me such mortification of the flesh that, like a Sadhu, I feel certain I have 

 acquired much merit. I knew beforehand that I had a worthy antagonist, and I had 

 made several elaborate plans to enable me to outwit the wary bird. Two of these I 



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