150 E VOL UTION 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 



