308 Zoologica : N. Y. Zoological Society. [I ; 17 



ien, and from horsfieldi in Upper Burma to lineatus in Lower 

 Burma. I collected or made notes upon many of the forms, not 

 only of adults in full plumage but of moulting birds and those 

 in immature dress. Forearmed with the details of what had 

 already been published on the subject, I was able to search more 

 intelligently and with more direct design than would otherwise 

 have been the case. More than this, however, was the aid given 

 by the English sportsmen in Burma, who in some cases fur- 

 nished me with data and specimens which were of the greatest 

 help. In several instances these were the very men who had 

 collected the original types, so their assistance cannot be over- 

 estimated. 



In the study of museum specimens I was not so fortunate. 

 The Indian Museum in Calcutta was open to me and there I 

 found and studied a very good collection, including the types 

 of andersoni, melanonotus and several other unique pheasants. 

 The museums of Paris and Berlin also possess interesting speci- 

 mens but Gates' collection of Gennaeus at the British Museum 

 with over one hundred and sixty specimens and at least fourteen 

 types was not available for study in the summer of 1912. Now 

 that two years have passed and no report has been made upon 

 this collection I offer a preliminary summary of my study of 

 this group, depending upon Gates' published descriptions of his 

 supposed species. I am quite sure that any future investigations 

 of the British Museum collection will in no way affect the gen- 

 eral results I have reached. 



I feel all the more certain in stating this belief because I 

 find myself in almost perfect agreement with Prof. Allessandro 

 Ghigi. It is most significant that while the conclusions of this 

 Italian ornithologist were reached by a study of the phenomena 

 of experimental hybridism and mine by independent observa- 

 tion of wild shot individuals, our results differ only in very 

 minor details. His paper to which I refer is Ricerche di Siste- 

 matica Sverimentale sul genere Gennaeus Wagler\ forming 

 the most thorough and masterly contribution to the subject 

 which has yet appeared. Gwing to the excellent keys and 

 descriptions which he presents, I omit their duplication in this 

 paper, giving only my general studies and results. 



iMemoria R. Accadcmia deUc Scienze dell' Islituto di Bologna, 1909. 



