740 Michael F. Guyer 
des is most closely approximated. However, taking for consider- 
ation feathers of the lower back region of the latter and of the 
hybrids respectively, one finds that the ten to twelve vermiculations 
of Agelastes have in the hybrids apparently yielded to the restrain- 
ing influence of the lesser number of bands found among pheas- 
ants in general, with the result that in the corresponding feathers 
of the hybrids three to six U-shaped bands are present. 
As already noted the white band of the hybrid feather, with 
few exceptions, crosses the shaft at less of an acute angle than in 
most pheasants. ‘This is a feature which might be reduced to the 
type of either such a form as Polyplectron (Fig. 8, Plate III) or 
Agelastes (Fig. 15, Plate IV). From the fact that most of the 
pheasants tend to have the sharper-angled or V-shaped marking, 
it would seem that the departure from this type is more likely to 
be due to the stress of the less remote guinea ancestor of Agelastes- 
like color pattern than to that of some ancestor as distant from 
Gallus as a primitive Polyplectron would be, although it is not 
impossible that both have been influential. 
The case is by no means unequivocal, because on a few obscure 
feathers of the common pheasant may be found markings (Fig. 
14, Plate III) that make almost as much of an angle with the shaft 
as do those of the hybrids and a few pheasants show commonly 
a broad U-shaped marking in all plumage. These white markings 
(Fig. 14, Plate III) of the common pheasant will be seen to resemble 
also rather closely those of the hybrids in other respects. “They 
tend, however, to be broader, to have an outline that is slightly 
more jagged, and to meet the shaft at more of a sharp angle. The 
feathers which show them are from the scapular region and when 
in place are hidden almost entirely by overlying feathers which 
bear a brighter and presumably a more recent color pattern. 
For the foregoing work of comparison, feathers other than the 
larger ones of wing and tail have been used because they are more 
constant in their characters. As to certain of the tail and wing 
feathers of the hybrids, they show also white vermiculations which 
vary in number with the length of the feather. There may be as 
many as twenty on some feathers and they tend to be more trans- 
verse than those of the body feathers. ‘The pattern is very similar 
