844 Marvels of the Universe 
rare and very beautiful form confined to Borneo. In the adult male of Bulwer’s Pheasant the 
naked skin of the face and the wattles is bright azure-blue, the legs are red, and the neck and chest 
dark crimson ; the rest of the plumage of the body and wings is more or less black and brown, tinged 
with purple, and with beautiful steel-blue edgings to the body feathers. An abrupt contrast with this 
dark-tinted body is the tail, which is an absolute white. The tail feathers are also crimped and 
curled in a fantastic manner. This bird only comes from the western perts of Borneo, where it 
inhabits the dense forests. 
Amongst other Pheasants are the Gold and the Amherst, and the many species of the genus 
to which the Pheasant of our woods belongs, especially the splendid Reeves’ Pheasant, with markings 
of black, white and gold, and a tail sometimes four feet in length. But these birds are so well known 
that we have become used to 
their marvellous beauty and it 
is not necessary to illustrate 
them in a special manner. 
Although Pheasants may 
have existed anciently in 
Europe before man came into 
existence, they are at the 
present day (with the excep- 
tion of the Common Pheasant) 
exclusively confined to Asia, 
and mainly to the easternmost 
parts of Asia, from Manchuria 
on the north to Borneo and 
Java on the south. Unfortu- 
nately, their extinction is pro- 
ceeding at a rapid rate, and it 
is quite possible that only a 
few species of these marvellous 
birds may ultimately survive, 
those which, like the Gold and 
This is the largest of the Polyplectron group and is the size of a large domestic Silver, Amherst, and Reeves’ 
fowl. It is also the commonest species and the most widely spread. Pheasants, will breed in capti- 
vity, and which now exist in numbers in aviaries all over the world. All the shy and rare kinds, 
like the Argus and Kheinhardt’s Pheasants, are diminishing rapidly in numbers through the 
destruction of forests which is going on in South-Eastern Asia, in order to plant rubber, coffee, tea, 
etc. In China they are being slaughtered on a tremendous scale, partly for their plumage, still 
more for their flesh, as they are sent in a frozen state for consumption as food in Europe. The 
construction of the Siberian Railway across Central Asia has assisted much to further this trade 
in frozen game from China. 
THE CHINQUIS PEACOCK PHEASANT. 
SEA-SCORPIONS 
BY REV. H. N. HUTCHINSON, F.R.G.S., F.G.S, F.Z.S. 
FossILs are often puzzling things to those who find them, especially when the specimens which the 
geologist brings home in his bag are only fragments of some now extinct creature of long ago. Fanci- 
ful names have frequently been given to fossilized organic remains found in quarries, or brickyards, 
and other places. The Belemnites, so familiar to all fossil-hunters, were at first called ‘“‘ Thunder- 
bolts,” from their long pomted shapes ; but, in reality, they are the internal bones of cuttle-fishes. 
