Atavism in Guinea-Chicken Hybrids 739 
individuals of the latter species (Fig. 25, Plate [V; note the mark- 
ings along the shaft). 
And now comes the question as to what conclusions may be 
drawn with reference to the characteristic color pattern of the 
guinea-chicken hybrids under discussion. Is it reducible to the 
pattern of such a form as Polyplectron chalcurus or to that of 
other pheasants or does it rather return to one more like that of 
Agelastes meleagrides of the guineas? ‘The truth would seem 
to be that it reverts to none accurately, but shows the mingled 
influence of both lines of ancestry. The united pull of a primi- 
tively barred ancestry on each side has been sufficient to make this 
tendency to barring stronger in these particular individuals than 
all others in the formation of the pattern, but the pattern is, as it 
were, a composite. 
An examination of such figures as Figs. 9, 11, 12, 13, Plate III, 
shows that the vermiculations are less numerous and proportion- 
ately broader than those of Agelastes meleagrides (Fig. 15, Plate 
IV), even when one takes into consideration the fact that Agelastes 
is a smaller bird, and has in consequence smaller feathers bearing 
a more delicate pattern. Furthermore, the bands are more pro- 
nouncedly U-shaped, the arms of the U being much lengthened 
and tending to run parallel to the shaft in most of the hybrid 
feathers. Again, in such feathers of the domestic guinea as show 
traces of the broader barring, while the white bands are of approx- 
imately the same breadth as those of the hybrid, they are less wavy 
and they are proportionately closer together (Figs. 23, 25, 27, Plate 
IV); moreover, they never run approximately parallel to the shaft 
of the feather. This last trait, indeed, is more like that which 
is characteristic of the pheasants as may be seen by examining . 
Figs. 4, 5, 10, Plate III, of feathers from ordinary pheasants 
bought in the Paris market or Figs. 1-3, Plate III, of feathers 
from pheasant hybrids. On the other hand the number of stripes 
in the pheasant feathers is fewer in the great majority of cases 
than in those from the guinea-chicken hybrids and they are, on 
the whole, of more even outline. 
In the wavy character ES ceiean of the white pattern of 
the hybrids, the guinea type as exemplified in Agelastes meleagri- 
