R. Haiu Thomas 249 



Transference of Plumage Patterns. 



The first, piiini to be rc'iiiark(?d in coniu'cliiui with our subjoct is the 

 siinpli; tnuisinission of the female plumage of his species by the male 

 parent to his female ofFsjjring, an unexpected sex-limitation, and also the 

 same simple tiansmission of the male plumage of her species by the 

 female parent to her male offspring. 



Closer observation reveals more inti'icate forms of inheritance which 

 are designated as pattern and colour-transferences, both male anfl female 

 piuiMits transmitting pattern and cnjoui' from one plumage area in their 

 spei-ies to a different area in their male and female offspring, some of 

 which have proved to be mutations fixed and heritable. 



In one singular case the female parent transmitted a pattern from 

 one area in her own plumage to another in her male descendant, also 

 transmitting to the same individual (F., inter se J') the plumage of the 

 male of her species but reversed, a light pattern on a dark ground 

 instead of a dark pattern on a light ground. This bird proved infertile 

 the only season he was mated, so the heritable rjualities of his strange 

 plumage could not be tested. 



Another mutation arose through the female parent transmitting 

 pattern and colour from one area in the transition plumage of the young 

 male of her species to another area in her female offspring', in this case 

 the bird proved fertile and the mutation was shown to be heritable^. 

 It is generally admitted that in a wild condition pheasant species cross 

 as easily as they do in captivity, and where such crosses are fertile these 

 phenomena of pattern and colour transferences would be a simple 

 explanation of the numerous closely allied species and varieties found in 

 the Somewhat limited area of their habitat. Even the varj'ing patterns 

 so remarkable in the female Silver pheasant {Gennaeus nycthemerus) 

 might be explained by cros.ses occurring between the Silver and Swinhoe 

 species, owing to the possible flight of the latter from the Island of 

 Formosa to the mainland opposite, and such a flight would not be less 

 possible than that of grouse which ringed on the Island of Rum have 

 been shot on a Yorkshire moor. 



All cross-breeding experiments produce disturbance of pattern and 

 colour in the central rectrices, one frequent change is the transference 

 to the central rectrices of a lateral rectrix pattern or colour. The 

 following cases illustrate this remark. 



' Series 1, F3. 



- ■fiiiiniiil of Genetics, Vol. iii. No. 4, April, 1914. 



