1914] Beebe: Preliminary Pheasant Studies. 269 



gradual change of color within the feathers themselves, at least 

 by a slow replacing of feathers throughout many months. One 

 finds abundant evidence of this belief, even from collectors' notes 

 on labels, such statements as ''young bird in moult" being ap- 

 plied to specimens on purely superficial circumstantial evidence 

 of color and pattern, in cases where there was not a growing 

 feather in the entire plumage. 



In this genus and in Lophophorus and others, the cause for 

 this error is easily found. The head and neck of the chick re- 

 main clothed in down long after the contour feathers of the 

 body have appeared. When at last the anterior plumage re- 

 places the down, it grows very rapidly, but in the space of a 

 few weeks the pigment secretions have undergone radical 

 changes and instead of the feminine browns and grays of the 

 juvenile body plumage, the young male usually shows a parti- 

 colored head and neck, differing very much individually, but 

 usually intermediate in color and pattern between juvenile and 

 adult. Thus the superficial impression conveyed during the 

 succeeding twelve months is of a bird in partial moult. This is 

 heightened by adventitious feathers which appear here and 

 there on the body, perhaps a single feather of glowing metallic 

 emerald set off by the surrounding dull brown. For so rapid 

 are the anabolic changes which alter the internal secretions, that 

 within seventy to ninety days after a purely juvenile feather has 

 finished its growth, if it be accidentally pulled out, it will be 

 replaced by a fully adult one. After the second winter's fully 

 adult plumage has been acquired, this incongruity in pattern and 

 pigment is of course no longer apparent. 



Without going at present further into details, the sequence 

 of plumages of a bird such as a male Tragopan satyra is most 

 interesting and suggestive. 



We find 



(a) A down plumage of definite regional patterns. 



(b) A juvenile plumage of definitely patterned feathers. 



(c) A first winter's plumage of very generalized, female- 



like coloration. 



(d) An adult plumage exceedingly specialized both as to 



region and feather, color and pattern. 



