°'{ 9 19 ] Recent Literature. 12o 



cinse which, not being regarded as "pheasants," have no place in the system- 

 atic part of the monograph, but are none the less Phasianidse, and his 

 conclusions would thereby have been still further strengthened. Under 

 ' Comparative Abundance ' we learn that pheasants fall into three groups 

 according to their gregariousness. The Argus and its allies live a solitary 

 life, associated with none of their kind except for a brief period in the mating 

 season; others, like the Kaleege, are eminently gregarious; while still 

 others, like the Tragopans and Jungle Fowl, are usually found in pairs. 



Protective coloration comes in for some very intelligent discussion. 

 Capt. Beebe suggests a rather novel test to determine whether a given bird 

 is really protectively colored or not. The wild pheasants which have no 

 experience with man act exactly the same upon his approach as they do in 

 the presence of their natural enemies, and his plan is to observe the bird's 

 realization of its own degree of protection as shown by its actions. Dull 

 colored hen-pheasants almost invariably squatted on the approach of an 

 intruder, thus showing their reliance on their ability to escape observation, 

 while the brilliantly colored cocks immediately took wing, a tacit admis- 

 sion of their lack of protection so far as coloration is concerned. Capt. 

 Beebe is, however, pessimistic as to the possibility of any sort of compromise 

 on the part of those who hold that all animals are protectively colored. 

 As an illustration he humorously states that on one trip he saw some 600 

 peafowl, each one of which took wing immediately and sought the tops of 

 the highest trees in the neighborhood which commanded the widest out- 

 look — an action that proved to his mind that the bird was not protectively 

 colored. When this was related to a friend who was an advocate of the 

 universal protection idea, he replied, "but think of the 6000 birds concealed 

 by their plumage that you did not see." The author states that he knew 

 from his intimate acquaintance with peafowl that he could not have 

 overlooked any of them, but no conclusive proof could be offered satisfactory 

 to his friend! 



There is also some interesting discussion of sexual selection and its part 

 in developing the wonderful plumes of the cock pheasants, this family 

 being notorious for the part that it has played in the elaboration of this 

 and allied theories. 



"The thought of the httle brown hens picking and choosing among their 

 suitors is charming," says Capt. Beebe, "one would like to think of 

 the hens playing off one cock against another in conscious mental compari- 

 son, of appraising this ruff with that patch of gold," etc., etc.; but he 

 adds, "However much I should like to do so I can credit pheasants with 

 no appreciation of the beauties with which they are so generously endowed." 

 His conclusions are that the whole kaleidoscopic display of the male 

 produces a mental effect upon the hens "not aesthetic, not distinctly critical 

 or attentional, but a slow indirect influence upon the nerves, the arousing 

 of a soothing, pleasing emotion which stimulates the wonderful sequence of 

 instincts which will result in nest-making, egg-laying, the weeks of patient 



