I{. IlAKi Thomas 261 



In the iSvvinhnc the ceiitral.s unly (■(iiiiinciice ^n'owth iif'tei' the l:il,er;ils 

 have grown to their full length. 



In Series 1 h\ "HA,' F, " BBAr F, " BBBA" and F, "BBBA" 

 inter se the moult, both period and nietlidd, is Silver. 



In this Series it is recorded that dimension, call, habit, plumage and 

 moult are correlated. 



In Series 1" F, " BAAA" male (offspring of extracted Svvinhoe 

 fenude, exhibited and described, P. Z. S. 1909, pp. 884-885) segregation 

 occurred, for though a perfect Swinhoe in dimension, call, plumage and 

 habit, this bird had the moult )n'riod and method of the Silver species, 

 and a similar independent moult segregation was observed in the males 

 of Series 1"", with the exception of the male and female F^ (offspring 

 of Fj female in Series 1"*, crossed with F.^ inter se " A " male in Series 1''), 

 where no moult segregation occurred, plumage, dimension, call, habit 

 and moult period and method were all Swinhoe. 



There is a sex difference in the moult of the Silver species, the male 

 starting the moult two months before the female. This difference is 

 found in Phasianus also, but though many records of both male and 

 female Swinhoe moult were made, I have not any sj)ecial records of the 

 Swinhoe moult sex difference, but it is probably the same. 



The hybrid males of the Silver Swinhoe cross Series 1 of the pedigree 

 have a double moult, the first in spring ami early summer, the second 

 in September: this duuble moult I have sometimes thought might be 

 due to inheritance of both male and female moult habit, but there must 

 be some other factor at work, for no matter in what month in the year 

 the hybrids are picked up, there are loose feathers that fiill out and 

 quills of young feathers growing in; the hybridising of pheasants seems 

 to create a moult disturbance and confusion, even in the fourth genera- 

 tion. Amongst the records it is noted on Nov. 4 that a Silver male 

 (Geii. nycthemerus) in fine plumage arrived and was killed for the 

 museum, the moult was complete, no loose feathers fell out, nor was the 

 plumage anywhere interrupted with the quills of new feathers as would 

 have been found on the bodies of any of th(> hybrid pheasants of what- 

 soever cross, for the constant state of semi-moult is a character common 

 to all the.so crosses, with the extracted Swinhoe exceptions above 

 mentioned. The condition is not a mere sex mosaic or racial mosaic 

 but rather a mutation mosaic. 



