•252 Colour and Pattern-Tramference in Pheasants 



13 hatched, 10 were males and there was only one dead in shell, whose 

 sex was not determined. Here as in other accounts a slight discrepancy 

 between the results and the egg numbers is due to an occasional egg 

 being broken by the hens in the nests, and forgotten to be noted ; 

 however these eggs never had birds in them, and might always have 

 been reckoned infertile. 



At ten days old F^ Reeves x Versicolor chicks developed an abnormal 

 wildness, rapidly rushing up and down their little run and dashing their 

 heads against the wire netting. Four days later fighting of a desperate 

 character took place. In the first hatch two birds fought and eventually 

 slew one another, force had to be used to separate them in the first 

 instance, but the true nature of this death struggle was not recognised 

 at first, and being again left together the fight recommenced and ended 

 fatally : both chicks on dissection proved to be males. In the second 

 hatch four chicks fought at 11 days old, one 'was slain; this bird also 

 was a male. 



In the third hatch two birds fought at 18 days old, one lingered 

 six days and then died of the injuries received: this chick also was 

 a male, and had tiny sharp spurs, a precocious development of a 

 secondary sexual character. In every case the attack was made with 

 the bill on the head, and dissection of the dead suggested that it was 

 the males that fought. 



Abnormal behaviour in the females commenced at the age of 

 two months, when a female i^, Reeves x Versicolor fought a male 

 F^ Reeves x Versicolor so savagely and persistently that she had to be 

 removed to a separate pen. 



In 1910 three pairs of Fi Reeves x Versicol(jr were mated inter se, 

 no mating was observed, no eggs were laid, all three pairs were sterile. 



Duringthe matingseason of 1911, twoof the female i^i Reeves x Versi- 

 color fought at daybreak, one was found dead, though still warm at 

 G a.m., the other had a bleeding head. The season suggested rivalry, 

 possibly the breeding instinct existed in these sterile hybrids, arousing 

 that jealousy which has so often in spring occasioned tragedies in my 

 pheasantry. Three trials were made in the season of 1911, the first, 

 another inter se mating between a pair of i^, Reeves x Versicolor with 

 the same result as in 1910, complete sterility, the second a mating with 

 female F^ Reeves x Versicolor and a Ph. versicolor ^ , the male parent 

 species, no eggs were laid : the third, two male Fj Reeves x Versicolor 

 with wings cut were placed in a large open pen to run with the common 

 pheasant hens, no mating was ever observed, nor was there ever any 



