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aviary are some hybrids between the Mongolian and 

 the Common Pheasant, born in the Gardens. Hybrid 

 Pheasants are not only often fertile inter se, but cross 

 as freely with other hybrids, so birds are frequently 

 seen in which the blood of three species is mingled. 

 Specimens of white and pied varieties of the 

 Common Pheasant {P. colchiais) often occur, and there 

 are at present some in the Gardens, but it will be 

 noticed in the case of the male bird that it is perfectly 

 white except for the pigment remaining in the eye 

 and in the naked patch around the eye. Therefore it 

 is only a partial albino. Looking carefully one can 

 distinguish areas marked out where the colours should 

 be, showing that these colours are partly formed by 

 structural peculiarities in the feathers in the form of 

 prisms, etc. The other pheasants are the Ring- 

 necked, which has so interbred with P. colchicus that 

 now one rarely comes across what appears to be a 

 really pure bred bird of either species, the Gmelin's 

 Ring-necked, Satschen Ring-necked, Elliot's, Reeves', 

 Talisch, Prince of Wales' and the Japanese Pheasants, 

 which also freely interbreed with the Chinese Ring- 

 necked (/*. torqiiatus), the male hybrid being a remark- 

 ably fine bird, surpassing in size and beauty either of 

 its parents. 



(Zb he cofiiinued.) 



