T94 • ' Plumage Episode of the Common Pheasant. 



otliei" showed the same indications; Ijy the middle of October 

 both were in full colour and were tyj'ical Kiny-necks (iorquatiis) 

 in every respect. 



In the early s])rin^- (jf tliis year our member, Capt. J. S. 

 Reeve, kindly allowed his !^"amekee])er to capture me four hens 

 from his coverts, and these duly reached me. 1 i)ut one of the 

 youni^' males in one of my pheasant runs with one of the hens, 

 another of the hens 1 put with a ( iold Pheasant, and the other 

 two I put in my large aviary with the other yount^" male 

 ( torqiiatiis .' ). All of these birds are still alive. In the large 

 aviary several nests have l)een made on the ground under 

 spreading' bushes, and I feel sure that, but for disturbance of 

 digging out rats at intervals, incubation, etc., would have duly 

 followed — 1 had no desire to rear any this year by foster-parents, 

 and no such attempt was made — in consequence, matters did not 

 get beyond the egg stage, the hens laying 80-90 eggs, many 

 of which still lie in the aviary. 



To go back to the young males, they remained, as regards 

 plumage, as described above, viz : typical torquatiis, till the 

 end of July; at this period they went into moult; the moult is 

 now (September 5th) complete, and to my surprise there is now 

 no trace of foyqiiatus about them, the white collar has entirely 

 disappeared, and they are fairly typical colchiciis. I am 

 perfectly aware that in Great Britain there are very few pure 

 colchicus to be found, nearly all our stock being tainted by 

 crossing with torqiiatiis and principalis, and that such birds, 

 showing the plumage characters of torqiiatiis and principalis, 

 will in a few generations revert back to the species from which 

 they were derived. 



1 nuist say. however, that to the writer the fact, of a bird 

 showing the i)lumage of torqiiatiis at the first moult and contin- 

 uing so for a twehe month, to. at the next moult, drop these 

 characteristics and don the garb of a typical coJcliiciis, is new. 



I sliall await the result of the 1920 moult with nuich 

 interest. 



^fX^ 



