316 BULLETIN" 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



feathers with margins and central streaks of buff to pale buff, those of upper- 

 mantle and base of back of neck more or less tinged rusty-rufous ; back, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts browner (less black) and with rather more pale buff 

 margins and centres and often bars; sides of head pale buff minutely speckled 

 black ; chin pale buff ; sides and base of throat same but streaked and with con- 

 centric lines of dark brown ; flanks same but with thicker concentric lines or 

 broken bars of brown to black-brown ; tail feathers small and narrow, buff 

 and rufous closely barred black ; wing feathers much as adult female, but with 

 pale buff barring; wing-coverts as scapulars, but with larger centres, and 

 greater often with bars of pale buff. 



The postjuvenal molt begins when the young bird is about half 

 grown ; it is a complete molt, except that the two outer primaries on 

 each wing are retained for a full year. By November or December 

 young birds have completed the molt into the first winter plumage, 

 which is practically adult. 



I can find no evidence of a prenuptial molt in adults, but they 

 have a complete postnuptial molt late in summer and early in fall, 

 beginning in July or August and ending in September or October. 

 Old females, whose ovaries have become inactive through old age or 

 disease, sometimes assume more or less of the male plumage. I 

 have seen such a bird in a local collection in Taunton and another in 

 the collection of W. F. Peacock in Marysville, Calif. This bird, Mr. 

 Peacock told me, had been raised in captivity and had laid some 280 

 eggs. When 6 years old she quit laying, and a post-mortem examina- 

 tion, 2 years later, showed that the ovaries were completely 

 atrophied. From the time she stopped laying the male plumage 

 gradually developed, until finally she could easily be mistaken for 

 a first winter male, having acquired the head and body plumage and 

 the long tail but not the comb and wattles of the male.] 



On the development of the male genital organs, Paul D. Dalke has 

 sent me the following notes: 



The size and development of the testes in the pheasant have been noted in 

 all the cock birds taken since January 22, 1930. A specimen taken on the 

 above date had testes that measured 4 by 10 millimeters. The next male was 

 collected on February 28, 1930. This was a young cock, but the testes had al- 

 ready grown considerably and measured 12 by 18 millimeters. Another young 

 cock collected on March 5, 1930, had testes that measured 13 by 21 millimeters. A 

 specimen of March 28 showed an increase in size of the testes to 15 by 25 

 millimeters. On May 1, 1930, two cock pheasants were collected, one an old 

 cock and the other of the previous year's crop. The latter had testes measur- 

 ing 16 by 30 millimeters and the former 22 by 35 millimeters. 



Food. — The food of the ring-necked pheasant consists of insects, 

 weed seeds, wild fruits and berries, and cultivated crops. Occasion- 

 ally small rodents are eaten. The economic status of the bird, 

 whether harmful or beneficial, is dependent on local conditions and 

 seasons of the year, and on the proportion between weed seeds and 



