734 Michael F. Guyer 
There is only one point in which Polyplectron seems to be highly 
specialized and this is the possession by the males of more than 
one pair of spurs. ‘These spurs may vary in number on the two 
legs of the same individual. An increase in the number of spurs, 
however, is by no means a peculiarity of this genus. The male 
of Chrysolophus pictus, the golden pheasant, generally has two 
spurs on each metatarsus; the male painted-spur fowl (Gallo- 
perdrix lunulata) may have two or three pairs of spurs; and in 
the blood pheasants (Ithagenes) the male may have as many as 
four pairs. The tendency, therefore, is not confined to any one 
species or genus of the Phasianine. It could be argued, indeed, 
that this very irregularity in the spurring of Polyplectron is a more 
primitive condition than the regular and stable condition of such 
a genus as Gallus. 
In any event, we find in the Phasianinz as a whole a tendency 
in color pattern toward the development of more or less of a cres- 
centric or U-shaped barring which in certain members of the 
group approaches to a striping. 
As regards the hybrids under consideration, however, there still 
remains the question of the guinea ancestor. 
The guineas (Numidinz) found only in Africa and the Mada- 
gascar region seem to stand as more or less intermediate between 
the Phasianinz of the Indian and Palzarctic regions and the 
Meleagrine of America. An examination of the color pattern 
of normal specimens of the domestic guinea or of its wild progen- 
itor Numida meleagris, of which the coloration is essentially the 
same, gives us little direct clew to the marking of the hybrid plum- 
age. Outside the genus Numida, however, one finds a very 
significant color pattern in the rare West African form,- Agelastes 
meleagrides (Fig. 1, Plate II), which ranges from Liberia to Gaboon. 
The head and neck of this fowl are bare and of bright red color. | 
The neck becomes whitish towards its base and terminates in a 
broad zone of white feathers. The plumage in general is black- 
ish, vermiculated with fine white transverse markings. ‘The nar- 
row outer webs of the remiges have whitish margins. 
While the white vermiculations can be seen upon closely exam- 
ining any of the exposed black feathers, they are very fine and in- 
