"To see the country, and explore some of its rivers."
"I thought we came here to hunt and fish," added Scott.
"I did not come here to kill harmless creatures for the fun of it. We want a full-grown orang, and I am ready to hunt for him," replied Louis. "We want him for the purpose of study, and to show to our friends on board of the ship. I don't object to shooting any bird or animal to extend our information."
Louis had his double-barrelled fowling-piece in his hand. Suddenly he brought it to his shoulder and fired. All eyes were directed to the shore, and a large bird was seen to drop upon the ground. The captain started the boat, and ran her up to the bank. Clinch leaped ashore, and soon brought the bird on board. Its plumage was highly colored and very beautiful.
"What do you call that bird, Louis?" asked Morris.
"Chambers calls it simply the argus, but the more common name is the argus-pheasant," replied Louis.
"Faix, he's a magnificent crayter; and what a long tail our cat has got," added Felix, as he spread the bird out on the gunwale.
The last remark referred to the long tail of the bird, which made the entire length from the bill to the end of it about five feet. Only two of the feathers were thus prolonged, adding about three feet to the dimension. The variety of colors were jet black, deep brown, fawn, white, and a number of secondary hues. The bird, deprived of his feathers, is about the size of an ordinary hen.
"But you can't see him at his best now that he is dead," continued Louis, who had read up the animal life he expected to find in Borneo. "Like a peacock, though to a less extent, he can spread out his pretty feathers, but not in the same manner; for they open out in the form of a circle, making a sort of round disk on his back and concealing his head. If you could see the bird alive with his wings spread out you would find every feather had a number of marks that look like eyes, and seventeen have been counted on one of them. Each of these marks consists in part of a jet-black ring, with other different colored rings inside of it, which make the whole figure like an eye.
"You remember a fellow who was called Argus in mythology, who had a hundred eyes, of which only two were ever asleep at the same time. This bird gets his name from him; though the story is that Mercury killed him, and Venus transferred his eyes to the tail of the peacock."