SOME KALIJ PHEASANTS FROM THE KACHIN HILLS. 5%5 
mens, three males and a female, in the Jardin des Plantes, and I con- 
sider that the species cannot posssibly be separated from G. andersoni, 
with the type of which, as it is exhibited in the Indian Museum, Iam 
very familiar. This type, however, is itself, I think, rather tainted 
with alien blood, as shown by its rather too short tail, some plain black 
on the wing-coverts, and light-coloured legs. With regard to Dr. 
Blanford’s suggestion in the Fauna of British India series, that 
G. andersoni may be merely a hybrid between G. nycthemerus (the well 
known Chinese Silver Pheasant of aviaries) and the common Lineated 
Kalij of Burmah(G. lineatus), I may mention that in the Paris Museum 
there is exhibited such a hybrid, and it comes so close to G. andersoné 
in appearance that, had not its origin been indicated on the stand of the 
specimen, I should have referred it to that species, as the only perceptible 
difference was that the pencilling on the back was finer and less regular. 
The pencilling of these parts is also undoubtedly finer and shows no 
perceptible white terminal band in the Burmese and Annam birds; 
which also have red legs ; but in view of the great amount of interbreed- 
ing that undoubtedly goes on in this group, one would not be justified 
in separating them from G. anderson on this account. I do not think 
G. andersoni is a hybrid, because of the close resemblance of the male 
specimens I have seen, and because the female differs strikingly 
from those of the possible parents, G. nycthemerus and G. lineatus, 
in having a plain brown tail with no pencilling on any of the 
feathers. 
The hybrid nature of Captain Nisbett’s specimens, above discussed, is, 
however, quite obvious : no two of them are alike, and in some cases 
the two sides of the same bird differ in amount of pencilling and 
length of tail-feathers (about an inch)—a thing I have never seen or 
heard of in a natural or true-bred species. As to the variable colour 
of the legs, this is not astonishing in a set of mongrels, the parents of 
which had legs of different colours. The normal Jungle-fowl (Gailus 
Jerrugineus) has, as Captain Nisbett says, slate-coloured legs ; but 
domestic fowls show legs of various colours in addition to pale- and 
dark-slate—white, yellow and olive-green, so that variation in this 
point might be expected under the circumstances. 
The most pure-bred-looking bird of the lot is No, IV, which is 
practically G, davisonz, but I should not like to put this form down as 
