542 
THE STORY OF THE-BIRDS. 
Malay Peninsula, the Islands of Sumatra and Borneo. It is of large size, 
measuring nearly four feet in length. The color is black, with a slight gloss 
of steel-blue or dark green; the rump and upper tail-coverts being white, as 
is also the tail, which has a broad bar of black just before the tip; while the 
under surface of the body is black, with the exception of the lower abdomen, 
thighs, and under tail-coverts. The bill has a large casque, with the fore¬ 
part turned up into a horn-like protuberance, whence the bird’s name of 
rhinoceros. The color of the bill is whitish yellow, black at the base, the 
casque lake-red, shading off below into orange near the base, which is black; 
and there is also a black line from the side of the nostrils to the fore-part 
of the casque. The feet are yellowish green, and the iris deep lake. The 
female resembles the male in color, but has no black base, and no black line 
along the side of the casque. In the young birds there is no fully-developed 
casque, but only a small orange-colored growth on the top of the upper bill. 
It will devour beetles, worms, mice, small birds, and almost any other kind 
of food. 
Red-Billed Hornbill—From India to Siam the red-billed hornbill is met 
with. The casque or horn is not so well developed as in the rhinoceros horn¬ 
bill and is orange red on top. The black wings are thickly marked with 
white. Like the other hornbills it nests in a great hole in a tree and feeds 
upon anything it can get. 
Argus Pheasant—The argus pheasant is the largest of the pheasant family. 
The male bird has the naked skin of the sides of the head, throat and fore¬ 
part of the neck dark blue. The feathers on the crown and the short crest 
are black; the upper parts beautifully checkered, mottled or spotted with 
black and buff; the chest is barred with black, and the rest of the under-parts 
are black, with wavy bars of chestnut and buff. It is found in the forests of 
Siam, the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. In total length the bird measures 
six feet from the bill to the end of the tail. The female has the general color¬ 
ation of the male, but lacks the beautiful ornamental markings. These 
pheasants are quite solitary, every male having his own “drawing-room,” of 
which he is excessively proud, and which he keeps scrupulously clean. They 
haunt exclusively the depths of the evergreen forests, and each male chooses' 
some open level spot—sometimes down in a dark, gloomy ravine, entirely 
surrounded and shut in by dense cane-brakes and rank vegetation—some¬ 
times on the top of a hill where the jungle is comparatively open—from; 
which he clears all the dead leaves and weeds for a space of six or eight yards- 
until nothing but the bare clean earth remains, and thereafter he- keeps this 
