150 EVOLUTION AND DISEASE. 
of the deceit of feathers I have seen a pheasant in the 
next cage making her overtures. Two years later (the 
spring of 1885) she would not yield to the solicitations 
of her mate, and he savagely killed her. The ovary 
was of the size of a split pea. A drawing of this bird, 
with the assumed plumage, is given as a frontispiece, 
and the hen golden pheasant in the proper sober 
plumage is sketched for comparison. 
These specimens are of interest in many ways, but they 
are especially instructive in showing how limited our 
knowledge is concerning latent characters ; although 
this comes out in a clear manner in the case of the 
golden pheasant, it is even more forcibly illustrated in 
an example mentioned by Darwin. It is to this effect :— 
“Mr. Hewitt possessed an excellent Sebright gold-laced 
hen bantam which, as she grew old, became diseased in 
her ovaria, and assumed male characters. In this breed the 
males resemble the females in all respects except in their 
combs, wattles, spurs, and instincts, hence it might have 
been expected that the diseased hen would have assumed 
only those masculine characters which are proper to the 
breed, but she acquired in addition well arched tail, sickle 
feathers quite a foot long, saddle feathers on the loins, and 
hackles on the neck—ornaments which,” as Mr. Hewitt 
remarks, “would be held abominable to her breed.” 
The Sebright bantam is known to have originated about 
the year 1800 from a cross between a common bantam 
and a Polish fowl, re-crossed by a hen-tailed bantam, 
and carefully selected ; hence there can hardly be any 
doubt that the sickle feathers and hackles which ap- 
peared in the old hen were derived from the Polish fowl or 
