528 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X/II, 
b. Very like G. horsfield’, but with outer tail- 
feathers more or less mottled black and 
chestnut ; centre tail-feathers very pale, 
or even whitish, on inner web _....._ G. oatesi. 
c. Upper plumage marked with white ; outer 
tail-feathers mottled black and white 
and chestnut ... a ves we» G. lineatus. 
iB. 
a. Lower plumage with white “ V ’-shaped 
marks ; tail plain-brown throughout ... G. andersoni. 
b. Nearly uniform brown, with no light 
markings or edgings to the feathers ; 
outer tail-feathers black, strongly pen- 
cilled with white oe aoe we G. nycthemerus, 
The fact that all the hens of these species can be so readily distin- 
guished would seem to militate against the hybrid origin of any of them ; 
but some of them may be the offspring of hybrids in the first place, 
which have ultimately by inter-breeding “ 
into definite types. That such a possibility exists is, I think, indicated 
shaken down,” as it were 
by some remarks made by Messrs. Stevenson in “The Birds of | 
Norfolk ” and Ogilvie-Grant in the British Museum Catalogue, in 
speaking of the English hybrids between Phasianus colchicus and 
P. torquatus, The former says: “The most marked feature of all, the 
white ring on the neck, descends from one generation to another, 
and the hybrid origin of the bird is thus apparent long after every 
other trace of its mixed parentage has passed away.” The latter 
(B. M. C., XXII, p. 321) notes: “It is very rarely now that any- 
thing approaching a pure bred male of P. colchtcus can be found in 
England ; even in specimens which appear to be pure bred at the first 
glance (that is, in those which have no trace of a white ring), the 
subterminal green bar of P. torquatus is usually more or less developed 
on the feathers of the lower back, and the basal part of the central 
tail-feathers is rather widely barred with black.” We see, therefore, 
that these undoubted hybrids are tending by inter-breeding to fall into 
two distinct types or sub-species, and it is quite possible that, given 
G. horsfieldi and G. lineatus to start with, the forms G. oatesc and 
G, cuviert have been thus produced, (F. /.) 
