730 Michael F. Guyer 
term. ‘They are found in the Indo-Malayan countries and the 
islands of Sumatra, Borneo and Palawan. Upon close inspection 
of the group, one is indeed impressed with this intermediacy, 
and can readily see as regards plumage at least how such forms 
as the peafowl on the one hand and the pheasants (and among 
them Gallus) on the other, could have diverged from some such 
generalized form as is found in the simpler species of Polyplec- 
tron. One sees in them in its incipiency, as it were, characters 
which only attain to their fullest expression in these other groups. 
Among the several species of Polyplectron itself, indeed, may be 
found interesting examples of progression in color pattern. In 
P. chalcurus, for example, one finds on the back and tail (Fig. 2, 
Plate II; Fig. 8, Plate III) a simple U-shaped barring of alternate 
brownish-black and reddish-brown bands. In certain other forms 
of Polyplectron one sees an increase in the light color of the lighter 
bands and a transition of each of these unbroken curved bands to 
a series of dots (Fig. 6, Plate III), of which, however, the transverse 
arrangement is still plainly apparent. In still other members of 
the group, the shifting of the pattern has gone so far on many 
feathers of the wings, saddle and tail that its transverse nature is 
almost wholly obscured, although on the breast and neck of some 
of these species, as P. thibetanum, or P. germaini it is distinctly 
discernible. In these two species, in fact, the males especially 
show a definite “cuckoo” marking very similar in appearance to 
that of certain breeds of domestic fowls such as the Plymouth 
Rock or the Dominique. It is inferred that the direction of the 
change has been from the transverse bar toward the uniform dot- 
ting, rather than the reverse, because such an order is parallel 
to the other specializations of the plumage, and because, further- 
more, the males, which in most species of Polyplectron are phylo- 
genetically in advance of the females, exhibit the dotting while 
the females are still in the barred condition. ‘Then, too, in the 
development of the plumage of the individual the stage of barring 
precedes that of the dotting. 
Again as regards ocelli or “‘eye-spots” in P. chalcurus which 
appears to be the most generalized species, one finds no ocella- 
tion. ‘The only hint of what is to be realized by the more special 
