BORNEAN ARGUS PHEASANT 153 



The crown feathers are centred with rufous instead of white, however, and the face and 

 neck much more thickly feathered than in the adult female. The bare skin even at this 

 early stage shows a decided bluish tint, hinting of the adult pigmentation. The nuchal 

 plumage is of rather elongated, recurved, slightly stiffened rufous feathers, becoming- 

 shorter on the upper neck. There is as yet, however, no indication of the extremely 

 specialized long, bristle-like feathers of the adult birds. On the lower neck faint, pale, 

 buffy tips begin to appear, simultaneously with considerable black mottling and cross- 

 barring. These buff tips are essentially juvenile and never present in fully adult birds, 

 although they may recur throughout several moults. On the mantle, scapulars and 

 lesser coverts this mark becomes a distinct, sub-terminal ocellus, set in a black frame. 

 On the tertiaries and inner secondaries the ocelli become indistinct, while the entire 

 feather in the former, and the outer webs of the latter, show a series of regular, delicately 

 shaded cross-bars. Each bar is composed of a proximal broken bar of pale-buff, 

 angulated lines which merge gradually into a rufous vermiculation, which is then 

 succeeded by a bar of the clear, brownish-black feather background, giving the successive 

 bands of buffy-rufous, black, buffy-rufous, black. The primaries show no barring, the 

 ground-colour being rich rufous, with dark mottling. 



The juvenile rectrices are exceedingly characterless, being brownish black, with a 

 faint, indistinct freckling of pale rufous. They are narrow, curved and rather pointed, 

 while those of the succeeding post-juvenile or first-year plumage are broader, straight 

 and more truncate. 



The back and rump are black, abundantly mottled with dull rufous buff, with 

 distinct terminal buff and sub-terminal black cross-bands. These are very narrow, and 

 are much like those found in the adult female. 



The ventral neck and upper breast are plain warm rufous with terminal bands of 

 buff and black. The breast and under-parts are paler buff, thickly mottled or irregularly 

 barred with black. Bill from nostril, 6 mm.; wing, 238; tail, 180; tarsus, 68; middle 

 toe and claw, 50 mm. 



In the juvenile there appear to be only five pairs of tail-feathers, and the sequence 

 of growth compared with that of the six pairs of the adults would indicate that the 

 central pair is the one which is suppressed, or rather which has not yet developed. A 

 pair of upper tail-coverts partly replaces this lack, and persists long after the others of 

 its series have been shed, thus bridging over, in a sense, the gap, when the pair of true 

 central rectrices has not yet appeared. They are much shorter than the juvenile 

 rectrices, about 38 mm. as compared with 100 to 130, but they must assist materially in 

 strengthening the central part of the tail. Their extremely worn appearance shows that 

 they play an important part in the functions of this organ. 



In a bird where the post-juvenile tail moult has begun, there may be seen feathers 

 of three distinct plumages. Around the eye and elsewhere on the head and neck there 

 remain traces of the down plumage ; the body as a whole and the inner and outer 

 rectrices are juvenile feathers, while the central tail-feathers are those of the succeeding 

 post-juvenile or first year plumage. 



First Year or Post-Juvenile Male Plumage. — Throughout the first year the 

 male Argus is clad in much the general coloration of the female, devoid as yet of 



VOL. IV X 



