end of primaries, i8-o to i g o ; to end of longest tertiaries,
33'0 to 34-5 ; tarsus, 4-5 to 4-8; bill from gape, 132 to 2'0.
Weight, 45 to 5-511«.
Females.—Length, 27-25 to 30-25 ; expanse, 35'0 to 40-0;
tail from vent, 12-5 to 13-0; wing, 11-5 to 13-0; tarsus, 362
to 3-75 ; bill from gape, r o to 175. Weight, 3-25 to
375ibs.
The male lias the legs and feet bright red, sometimes even a
vermilion red. The female has them a paler and duller red,
sometimes a litharge red ; the bill and claws arc white, slightly
tinged blue ; the cere, in the male, the same colour as the bill; in
the female pale brown ; irides wood to dark brown ; the facial
skin dull pale indigo, to dark plumbeous blue.
A nestling male measured :—
Length, 6-25 ; expanse, i r o ; tail from vent, 07 ; wing, 3-3 ;
tarsus, 175 ; bill from gape, 0-75. Weight, 2-5 ozs.
The bill was pale horny; irides pale brown ; eyelids grey
brown.
T H E PLATE, though carefully drawn, seems to have been
taken from a faded specimen, and conveys no adequate idea
of the marvellous depth and richness of the tints of the
male's plumage. The bill is wrongly coloured, as arc the claws,
and the tint of the facial skin is too pale altogether. The
plate is wrongly lettered.
As for the nondescript on the right, supposed to be a female,
it reminds one of an amateur's daguerreotype portrait in the
early days of photography, and as the hen could never be identified
by it, I will give a description of her :—
The female wants the crest and the elongated tail feathers
of the male, and has the whole top and back of the head, including
the somewhat elongated bristly feathers of the lower
part of the occiput and nape, and the back of the neck, speckled
and narrowly barred greyish, or sometimes fulvous white and
blackish dusky ; the chin and throat and sides of the head
and front of the neck, as in the male, bare or nearly so, with
sparse white hair-like feathers ; t h e base of the neck all round
deep ferruginous, altogether unmarked, or a little freckled and
marked with zig-zag black lines ; breast and upper abdomen
ferruginous, more or less orange, and becoming yellower on the
abdomen, everywhere extremely closely vermicellated with
zig-zaggy black lines ; lower abdomen, tibial plumes, and flanks,
a dusky greyish brown very finely, and on the lower abdomen
and vent obsoletely, vermicellated with pale reddish brown ;
lower tail-coverts dark brown, finely speckled and vermicellated
with pale rusty ; winglet and primaries deep chestnut, irregularly
variegated with black lines and spots ; upper back like the
breast, but the black markings rather more preponderant;
secondaries, tertiaries, and wing-coverts black, comparatively
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
subtcrminal b a r ; 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, Argusgrayi, 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.