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THE ARGUS PHEASANT. 
almost naked shafts, and rich golden-green, shot with bine, on their expanded tips. The top of 
the head, the throat and neck, are the most refulgent blue, changing in different lights to gold 
and green. On the back the feathers are golden-green, edged with velvety black, giving a 
peculiar richness of effect. The wings are darker than the rest of the plumage, the quill- 
feathers being marked with black, and having some red about them. The abdomen is blackish, 
with a green gloss, and the feathers of the thighs are fawn. The female is much smaller than 
her mate, and not nearly so beautiful, the train being almost wanting, and the color ashy- 
brown with the exception of the throat and neck, which are green. A white or albino 
variety of this bird is not at all uncommon, and in this case the characteristic “eyes” are 
faintly indicated in neutral tint. 
The generic term Polyplectron signifies “ many-spurred,” and is given to a genus of gal- 
linaceous birds because they have two or sometimes three spurs on each leg. There are several 
species, all very handsome birds, and one of the most conspicuous is the Crested Peacock 
Pheasant. As is the case with all the species, the tail is greatly enlarged, so as to be spread 
into a flat, wide, fan-like form, with two ranges of feathers placed one above each other, and 
decorated with a double row- of large lightly-colored spots. It probably inhabits Soudan and 
the Moluccas, but there is little known of its habits. 
The beautiful crest which adorns the head is very deep shining violet-blue, and the head, 
neck, and breast, are of the same color. Over the eye runs a white streak, and a white patch 
is placed just below and behind the eye, contrasting very boldly with the deep violet of the 
surrounding plumage. The back is brown, covered with irregular wavy lines of a paler hue, 
and the wing-coverts and secondaries are bright azure tipped with velvety-black. The tail is 
brown, covered with innumerable little spots of yellowish-white, and each feather is marked 
near the tip with a large oval spot of shining metallic green, surrounded first with a waved 
line of black and then with a broader line of pale brown. Close to the tip each feather is 
bordered with black, and the extremity is pale fawn. The abdomen is dull black. In total 
length, this bird measures about twenty inches. 
The Pheasants comes next in order, and the grandest and most imposing of this group, 
although there are many others that surpass its brilliant coloring, is the Argus Pheasant, 
so called in remembrance of the ill-fated Argus of mythology, whose hundred eyes never slept 
simultaneously until charmed by the magic lyre of Mercury. 
This magnificent bird is remarkable for the very great length of its tail-feathers and the 
extraordinary development of the secondary feathers of the wings. While walking on the 
ground, or sitting on a bough, the singular length of the feathers is not very striking, but when 
the bird spreads its wings, showing the full expanse of the secondaries, they come out in 
all their beauty. As might be supposed from the general arrangement of the plumage, the 
bird is by no means a good flier, and when it takes to the air, only flies for a short distance. 
In running its wings are said to be efficient aids. 
Although the Argus is hardly larger than an ordinary fowl, the plumage is so greatly 
developed that its total length measures more than five feet. The head and back of the neck 
are covered with short brown feathers, and the neck and upper part of the breast are warm 
chestnut-brown covered with spots of yellow and black, and similar tints are formed on the 
back. The tail is deep chestnut covered with white spots, each spot being surrounded with a 
black ring. When the bird chooses, it can raise the tail, so that it stands boldly in the air 
between the wings and is partially spread. The secondaries of the wings are most wonderful 
examples of plumage, and would require many pages to describe them fully. Suffice it to say 
that the gradations of jetty-black, deep rich brown, orange, fawn, olive and white are so justly 
and boldly arranged as to form admirable studies for the artist, and totally to baffle description. 
In one feather now before me there are seventeen large “eyes” on the outer web, each 
being surrounded with a ring of jetty -black, then with a dash of chocolate within the ring, 
then olive with the least possible tinge of purple, and lastly with a spot of pure white near 
the tip, fading imperceptibly into the olive on one side and the chocolate on the other. 
