A REVISION OF THE GENUS GENN.EUS. 683 



of the Irrawaddy, and it is quite possible that the cross may have 

 even been with a specimen of horsfieldi itself. 



As regards elegans, of the eight specimens in the Museum 

 Collections, seven were collected in the B^nhj Mines District, and 

 one at Loimai in the Southern Shan States. In these cases the 

 yellow legs are due to the causes alread}^ mentioned with the 

 exception that in the case of the Loimai bird the throw back would 

 be to lineatus or the cross, if due to hybridization, with the same 

 bird. 



It appears to me that Oates found within the Ruby Mines 

 District a form of Silver Pheasant which varied very greatly in 

 depth of colouring, birds from the same locality and sometimes from 

 the same flock showing the extremes of variation met with. Then 

 at the same time and from the same locality he got dark birds with 

 red legs and pale birds with red legs, and also both forms with 

 yellow legs. He accordingly divided the red legs from the yellow 

 legs, and these two divisions again into dark and light birds, after 

 which he gave them four names. 



The darker red-legged birds he called atlayi and the paler rufipes, 

 whilst of the yellow-legged birds he called the paler elegans, and two 

 somewhat darker specimens assiinilis. 



A bird with one yellow and one red leg he has called rufiijes. 



It is quite incredible that four sub-species can exist in the same 

 area at the same elevation, and I have no alternative but to reduce 

 assimilis, elegans and atlayi to synonyms of rufi]jes. 



Before leaving this question of variation and hybridization, it 

 may be well to quote the remarks made by Major Nisbett in a letter 

 to Major Harington : 



" This bird was shot at a spot near Sadon, where the two 

 " streams meet before flowing down to the Irrawaddy, and where 

 " I can conscientiously say I never got two birds alike." 



Of the remaining so-called species, haringtoni, nishetti, andersoni, 

 crawfurdi and granti, all bear distinct signs of hybridization, 

 Haringtoni and andersoni are exactly like one another, and both show 

 in the unequal marking on the upper plumage that they are the 

 result of hybridization. Craivfurdi is merely a synonym of andersoni, 

 and granti, though a paler bird than haringtoni, shows very similar 

 marks of the horsfieldi cross. 



The following specimens are all Gennceus nydhemerus rufifes : — 



Oennceus atladi. 



1. B. M., No. 1910.7.5.17, Ruby Mines ; type of species. 



2. „ „ 1910.7.5.20, 15 M. E. of Mogok. Shot together with 



rufi])es, No. 1910.7.5.5. 



3. „ „ 1910.7.5.18, Ruby Mines. 



4. „ „ 1910.7.5.19 „ 



^' \ „ „ 1910.7.5.21-22, Khaben, Ruby Mines. 



