168 THE ARGUS PHEASANT, OR GIGANTIC ARGUS. 
•with the body, and with the two plumes folded to- 
gether. 
The young males possess none of the varied mark- 
ings just now attempted to be described. They are 
of a uniform dull brown, spotted and irregularly 
blotched, reddish- yello w, brown, and black. After 
the first moult, thero is still no appearance of the 
ocellated spots. The shafts of the feathers of the 
wings are black, the quills are of a dull brown, clouded 
with a line on the inner welis, and marked towards 
the tip with black and brown spots ; the secondaries 
are of a uniform brown on the inner webs, but the 
outer ones have a ground of brownish-yellow, with 
black wavy bands, and the part where the ocellated 
spots are to appear are marked with black crescents 
surrounded with chestnut. After the second moult, 
all the colours of the adult acquire a regular distri- 
bution ; after the third, they are still better defined, 
the showy spots are small, of an irregular form, and 
much less numerous than in the adults ; and it is not 
until after the fourth moult, that the shades acquire 
their perfect brilliancy, and the markings their re- 
gularity*. 
The female is still less known than the male. 
Among the birds sent from abroad, those of unob- 
trusive plumage are seldom included, and when 
commerce is the object, even a reiterated request 
fails in procuring the wished for specimens. With 
thirty males, Temminck thought himself fortunate 
* Temminck. 
