82 On Beebe's Monograph of the Pheasants. [Ibis, 



confirm his opinion^ which Captain Beebe quotes without any 

 ai'gument to show why he dissents from it. With regard to 

 /, tibelamis, it seems to me very doubtful whether Mr. Stuart 

 Baker, who described it on a single specimen brought by 

 Captain Molesworth, was justified in considering it as a 

 good species, having regard to tlie amount of variation which 

 exists in /. cruentus ; and I shoukl be disposed to reserve 

 an opinion on these races, until a much larger series of 

 specimens are obtained from the mountains east and north- 

 east of Sikkim, which until Bailey and Morshead^s journey 

 [cf. Geographical jVJagazine, xliii. p. 184) were almost terra 

 incognita, and which are likely to remain unexplored for 

 many years, unless the policy of the Indian government 

 in these regions is changed. Captain Beebe may retort 

 by asking why I in 1881 founded the description of a 

 new species of Eared Pheasant, Crossoptilon harniani, on 

 a single imperfect skin ; and I will confess that I would 

 not do such a thing now. But as he has at the end of his 

 volume treated of this variety, or local race, or species — for 

 I care not which you call it — under the heading of " wild 

 hybrids," I should like to show that hybridity in this case 

 seems impossible, and would be possible only if two species 

 of Crossoptilon existed in regions near enough to each other 

 for the two species to meet. I will not now go into details 

 of all the points which Captain Beebe has brought forward 

 on pp. 193-198 to support his view that C. harmani, 

 C. leiicurum, and C. drougnii are hybrids, but the map of 

 Geographical Distribution of the genus opposite p. 158 — 

 though it cannot be taken as more than a suggestion based 

 on very small knowledge of the region and even less of the 

 birds in it — shows that C. harrnani is the most westerly 

 representative of the genus; and although the map, as 

 coloured, leads one to suppose that its range is not far 

 distant on the east from that of C. tibetanum or on the north 

 from that of C. auritum, yet, so long as we have no evidence 

 that these two species ever do come in contact, the question 

 of hybridity can hardly arise. Hybrids iu nature among 

 birds are so rare, whilst intermediate forms are so common, 



