ar·gus pheasant

(är′gəs)

A large bird (Argusianus argus) of the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, and Sumatra, having long tail feathers marked with brilliantly colored, eyelike spots.

[After Argus, , whose hundred eyes were given to a peacock's tail.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

argus pheasant

(Animals) either of two pheasants, Argusianus argus (great argus) or Rheinardia ocellata (crested argus), occurring in SE Asia and Indonesia. The males have very long tails marked with eyelike spots

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

argus pheasant - large brilliantly patterned East Indian pheasant

argus

pheasant - large long-tailed gallinaceous bird native to the Old World but introduced elsewhere

Argusianus, genus Argusianus - argus pheasants

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References in classic literature

The ferocity of their fierce faces was accentuated by the upturned, bristling tiger cat's teeth which protruded from every ear; while the long feathers of the Argus pheasant waving from their war-caps, the brilliant colors of their war-coats trimmed with the black and white feathers of the hornbill, and the strange devices upon their gaudy shields but added to the savagery of their appearance as they danced and howled, menacing and intimidating, in the path of the charging foe.

View in context

Little Lek is an Argus pheasant who hatches in the tropical forest of Southeast Asia.

Little Lek Longtail Learns to Sleep

Fie introduced me to the argus pheasant, Gunong Benom, the Orang Asli, and night-time bird banding on Fraser's Hill.

G.W.H. Davison, D.R. Wells, and H.S. Yong, eds., 2013. Special Volume in Honour of the 80th Birthday of Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 5th Earl of Cranbrook: Cranbrook at Eighty: His Contributions so Far

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