SCEMMERBING'S PHEASANT. 201 



and lie very close in the hills during the day, without being 

 under the necessity of wandering in search of food. 



"^ ' The note of one or the other of these species of 

 pheasants was heard frequently. On the top of a precipitous 

 hill, about a mile south of Simoda, covered by small pines and 

 a very thick growth of shrubbery, a pheasant (so we were 

 assured by the Japanese) passed the weary hours while his 

 mate was on her nest, and very sensibly solaced himself and 

 her with such music as he was capable of making. It was, 

 however, anything but melodious, and may be represented as 

 a sort of compound of the filing of a saw and the screech of a 

 peacock. There are two notes only, uttered in quick succes- 

 sion, and represented by the Japanese name of the bird — 

 Ki-ji ; but the second note is much longer, louder, and more 

 discordant, in fact has more of the saw-filing character — 

 Kee-jaeae. These two notes are uttered, and if the bird is 

 not disturbed they are repeated in about five minutes. A 

 good many attempts, perhaps twenty, to become better 

 acquainted with this individual all failed. It seemed impossible 

 to make him fly, though his covert was by no means 

 extensive.^ " 



This species is readily distinguished by the widely 

 separated transverse bands on the tail of the male, and the 

 short, rounded tail of the female (Sin. in length, that of the 

 male being 23in.), the feathers of which are tipped with white 

 at the extremit}'. We are not aware of any hybrids between 

 this and allied species, although their production would 

 be very interesting as bearing on a suggestion made by 

 Darwin to the effect that '^if the female Soemmerring 

 pheasant with her short tail were crossed with the male 

 common pheasant, there could be no doubt that the male 

 hybrid offspriug would have a much longer tail than that of 

 the pure offspring of the common pheasant. On the other 

 hand, if the female common pheasant, with her tail nearly 

 twice as long as that of the female Soemmerring pheasant, 

 were crossed with the male of the latter, the male hybrid 



