BORNEAN ARGUS PHEASANT i^i 



being sometimes four times as long as the outer pair. As in the primaries, the shafts 

 are basally orange, changing to blue. The inner webs of these feathers are grey, 

 marked and spotted with angular white hieroglyphics. Along the shaft are a number 

 of inconspicuous ocelli, rounded areas of a dull citrine-drab, framed in broken black and 

 white. The outer webs are black throughout their inner half, changing abruptly to a 

 dull chocolate, everywhere speckled with small white dots, framed, in the chocolate area, 

 in black. 



The outer webs of the lateral tail-feathers are jet black, dotted with white. Near 

 the shaft and toward the tip of the feathers the white spots coalesce into a network, 

 while on the inner webs this network is very pronounced, forming irregular interspaces 

 which are tinged with a spot of citrine-drab, this changing to a rufous toward the 

 extremity of the feather. 



Lower fore neck and upper breast clear, bright, orange rufous, with shaft-streaks 

 of yellow orange. The dominant colour of the under-parts is chestnut, but on most of 

 the feathers the pattern consists of a succession of narrow oblique bars, black and 

 chestnut, alternating with buff or white. The chestnut is much wider than the others, 

 and toward the tip of the feather there is a tendency for the narrow black and white 

 lines to encircle large spots of the chestnut, forming several imperfect, subterminal 

 ocelli. This is especially true on the plumage of the sides. The thighs are chestnut, 

 irregularly banded with black. The under tail-coverts black, with quite regular bars of 

 white dots, tinged in the interspaces with chestnut. 



The skin of the head and neck varies from dull pale indigo to bright cobalt ; iris 

 pale greyish brown, Avith a narrow outer ring of hazel ; feet and legs, coral or vermilion 

 red ; bill and claws, horny white or pale horn colour, the base of the upper mandible 

 dark brown. Weight of a full-grown male, four pounds. 



Length, about i,8oo mm; bill from nostril, i8; wing, about 850; tail, outer 

 feathers, 300; central feather, about 1,200; tarsus, 100; middle toe and claw, 80 mm. 

 Spurs, wholly absent. 



Adult Female. — Feathers on head only slightly recurved and velvety, marked 

 with a broad, white, submarginal band. Nape and hind neck with elongated, bristle- 

 like feathers, grey, with recurved tips. Collar around lower neck bright, rusty red, with 

 a central area of lighter orange, mottled with black where it grades into the mantle. 

 Entire remaining upper plumage black, variously marked with buff, warm on the mantle 

 and back, paling on the coverts and visible Avebs of the secondaries. On the mantle - 

 this marking is little more than an uneven vermiculation, the black and buff being 

 of about equal proportions. On the back, rump and upper tail-coverts, the buff 

 vermiculation is concentrated into several wide, transverse bands, with equally broad 

 black interspaces, either clear, or with a few coarse, irregular buff spots. On the 

 tertiaries and outer webs of the secondaries and tail-feathers the vermiculation 

 disappears, and the black is irregularly marked with dots and angular buffy spots of all 

 shapes, hieroglyphed over the entire web. The inner web of the secondaries is brownish 

 black, faintly netted with greyish white. The ocellated area of the male is indicated by 

 a zone of orange freckling near the shaft. 



The alula and the primaries are chestnut, the former strongly, and the latter faintly 



