THE ARGUS PHEASANT. 103 



coarsely banded or variegated with bright buff bands, pretty 

 uniform in breadth, but varying altogether in length and 

 shape, sometimes reduced to mere spots, sometimes assuming 

 most complicated hieroglyphic forms ; the whole of the middle 

 and lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts black, banded with 

 irregular freckly speckly spotted bars, varying in different 

 specimens from deep ferruginous buff to almost buffy white ; 

 the markings at the upper edge of each of these bands being 

 coarse and sparse, and growing fine and speckly towards the 

 lower edge ; tail and longest upper tail-coverts irregularly, but 

 closely, marked with ferruginous buff or dull ferruginous. 



It may be useful to describe the nestlings, which we have not 

 been able to introduce into the plate. 



The general colour is a brownish chestnut ; the crown, nape, 

 and interscapulary region obsoletely freckled with deep brown ; 

 the back and rump are black, with a broad conspicuous pale 

 yellow stripe on either side of the back bone ; the wings are 

 brown ; the larger coverts each with a rufous spot or imperfect 

 subterminal bar ; the quills tipped with the same dull rufous, 

 and mottled with it on their outer webs ; the chin and upper 

 part of the throat are reddish albescent ; the breast and front 

 and sides of the neck are brownish chestnut, slightly paler on 

 the interscapulary region, The rest of the lower parts browner 

 and paler. 



One other species of the genus, Argus gray >i, is known from 

 Borneo, and there are two other supposed species, A. ocellatus 

 and A. bipunctatus, described from a few feathers, of which 

 nothing absolutely is, I believe, yet known. 



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