276 Secondary Sexual Characters in Pheasants 



transmitted to her by the female parent, for she transmitted some of 

 these to her male offspring when mated with a P. versicolor ^ . 



Turning to the sterile hybrids we find the influence of the female 

 on the various characters of her male offspring still stronger, a mating 

 made between P. reevesi $ and P. formosamis </ produced two F^ 

 males, having the colour, form, pattern and structure of the majority 

 of the plumage areas together with the bill and bulk of the male of the 

 female parent species. 



A very peculiar case illustrating the phenomenon of the transmission 

 by the one sex of the secondary sexual characters of the other sex was 

 shown in the difference between the 1910 and the 1911 plumage of 

 a sterile F^ Reeves x Formosan $. The 1910 plumage ^d,^ female, 

 and much of it was transmitted by the male parent resembling that of 

 the female of his species. In 1911, the plumage of this F^ Reeves x 

 Formosan % assumed male characters, and was in every area in which 

 it occurred the male plumage of the female parent species, proving that 

 to this one individual both the male and the female parent had trans- 

 mitted the secondary sexual characters of the opposite sex of their 

 species. 



A mating between P. reevesi J x P. versicolor </ produced sterile 

 offspring, and here also the female parent transmitted to her male 

 offspring, in several areas, the male characters of her species in bulk, 

 colour and pattern. 



The number of male birds reared in the above crosses has been 

 considerable, therefore the statement might be made that these facts 

 are of pretty general distribution in pheasant crosses. 



In previous papers {Proc. Zoo. Soc. April, 1910; Proc. Zoo. Soc. 

 September and December, 1912), I have brought to notice facts relating 

 to the transmission by the male of the female secondary sexual characters 

 of his species. In the first, an account was given of a cross between 

 a Silver J and Swinhoe cf, followed by a P^ J x Swinhoe (^ which 

 produced an Pj female offspring very difficult to distinguish from a 

 pure Swinhoe $ : and when bred with a Swinhoe <f the only offspring 

 this Po female produced was a pure Swinhoe male. 



The crossing of Formosan with Versicolor formed the subject of the 

 other paper, in which it was shown that the male parent transmitted 

 to his Pi female offspring much of the female plumage of his species 

 together with the dimension of the egg, and that in the Po generation 

 the offspring of P, Formosan x Versicolor J with P. versicolor (} the 

 Versicolor male seems to have transmitted every character, bill, leg 



