Atavism in Guinea-Chicken Hybrids Wat 
ized members of the group is found in a pronounced purplish and 
greenish “metallic” coloration present on certain feathers of the 
tail. In the male of P. emphanes, while there are numerous 
green metallic iridescent areas on the feathers of the upper wings 
and back, they have not yet progressed to the condition of being 
definite ocelli, although on the tail of this same individual there 
are two transverse bands (the one on the retrices, the other on the 
upper tail coverts) of ocelli. Still a step in advance, in the male 
of P. thibetanum, Gm. (P. alboocellatum, cuv.; Type, Mus. 
d’hist. nat., Paris), the smaller feathers of the wings and the 
feathers of the interscapular region bear distinct small purple 
ocelli ringed successively with black, light brown and white. 
The tail is also banded with ocelli. In the male of P. germaini 
the wing-coverts and back bear numerous green ocelli. The 
female of this species, as usual less advanced phylogenetically 
than the male, has the ocelli of the body much less distinctly 
marked. Moreover, they are entirely missing from the tail of one 
specimen examined and more or less obscurely represented on the 
tail of the other. 
Outside the group polyplectron all are familiar with the remark- 
able ocellated “train” (the enormously developed upper tail 
coverts) of the peacock. Again in the argus pheasants is found a 
pronounced development of ocelli. Thus, this same tendency 
is seen to crop out in group after group of the Phasianinz which, 
judging from the intermediate nature of Polyplectron, could have 
had some primitive member of this genus as the common ances- 
tral form. 
With this thought in mind it is interesting to examine still 
farther the species P. chalcurus (Type, Mus. d’hist. nat., Paris) 
of Sumatra. (It is called P. (chalcurus) inocellatus in the Cam- 
bridge Natural History, vol. ix, p. 208). This species could, 
indeed, stand near what might have been the common ancestor of 
the peafowls, jungle fowls, and pheasants. The generalized 
form of the bird is obvious (Fig. 2, Plate II). Even the male, of 
which Fig. 2 is a photograph, is devoid of all special head ornaments 
such as comb, wattles, ear lobes, crests, etc., which are present 
so commonly in the males and often in the females of many gen- 
