1914] Beebe: Review of the Genus, Genn^us. 311 



English ornithologist, Mr. Eugene W. Gates, toward the end of 

 his life, became interested in these Burmese Kaleege and gath- 

 ered all the specimens possible. He had no belief in the 

 hybridizing of these birds, and so strong was this attitude, that 

 the naming of new forms became an obsession with him. He 

 grew intolerant of criticism and welcomed neither argument nor 

 proof, however convincing, that any of his species were other 

 than normally evolved forms. But aside from this, his work 

 was sincere, and however limited his ability to view the subject 

 from more than one angle, he at least labored to gather together 

 a splendid collection, and we are greatly indebted to him for 

 giving this unusual phenomenon such prominence. 



Of the twenty-six so-called species, Gates is responsible for 

 nineteen, a goodly percentage of which were based on single 

 specimens. 



The conclusions which Ghigi draws from his experiments 

 seem important enough to quote in full, both the original and 

 the translation. 



"Returning to the birds forming the subject of the present 

 study, if we proceed to examine G. leucomelanus and G. hors- 

 fieldi, or rather this last one and G. lineatus, we see that they 

 differ in a complexity of characters, which, in the hybrids are 

 so arranged as to produce an intermediate form, or else, they 

 transmit them in a different association from that existing in 

 the progenital species. Granted that these intermediate forms 

 or with the characters associated in a different manner, may 

 be constant in their descent, it is clear that two distinct species 

 have the power to give origin to a new form by crossing. 



"If, however, we consider G. leucomelanus and G. tnuthura 

 or else the first and G. albocristatus, it is clear that from hybrids 

 between them, we are not able to obtain new forms, as the differ- 

 ence consists in each case of only one pair of characters, antag- 

 onistic and unresolvable. The hybrids of the first pair will have 

 the white fringe on the rump or will not be provided with it; 

 those from the second pair will have the crest black or will 

 have it white; they will belong then either to one or the other 

 species, and even if they should be intermediate in the sense of 

 having the white fringes not as large as in leucomelanus, or the 



