umminj §iù. 



Notes on the rare Pheasant, Rheinardius 

 ocellatus, Verr. 



By A. Boucard. 



In 1889, 1 met Captain Rheinard in the house of our mutual 

 friend Mr. Anatole Maingonnat. In the course of an interest- 

 ing conversation on Tonkin, that gentleman told me he had 

 brought with him several long feathers used as head 

 ornaments by the native chiefs of the interior of Tonkin. 



I told him that I was very anxious to see them ; as I thought, 

 by the description he made, that they ought to belong to a new 

 species of the rare genus Argus. 



Next day I was in possession of the said feathers, which I 

 have still. No one, unless he be an enthusiast Naturalist like 

 myself, can have an idea of the extreme pleasure I felt when 

 these feathers were handed to me. There was one long feather 

 about three feet long, and several smaller ones. I thought at 

 once of a magnificent new species of Argus, and told so to 

 Captain Rheinard, insisting upon him to do all what he could 

 to procure as many specimens as possible, as I was certain that 

 it should prove one of the greatest ornithological discoveries of 

 this century. 



As he was returning to Tonkin a few days after, I made an 

 appointment with him for the next day, and I went at once to 

 the Library of the Jardin des Plantes, where I asked for the 

 beautiful Monograph of Phasianidse, lately edited by D. Elliot. 

 At once, I found in that magnificent work one coloured plate 

 figuring some feathers, the property of the French Museum 

 of Natural History, which undoubtedly belonged to the same 

 species as those which I had with me. It was at the 

 same time a great pleasure and a great disappointment, see- 

 ing that the bird had already a name given, that of Argus 

 ocellatus, Verr. Nevertheless, I thought what a grand thing it 

 would be to have the bird. So the next day, when I met 

 Captain Rheinard, I told him what I had discovered about 

 the feathers, and told him to procure the bird by all means. 



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