884 ON SOME SKINS OF HYBRID PHEASANTS. [DeC. 14, 



December 14, 1909. 



G. A. BouLENGER, Esq., F.R.S., Yice-President, . ' 

 in the Chair. 



The Secretary read the following report on the additions 

 made to the Society's Menagerie during the month of November 

 1909:— 



The registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the 

 month of November were 176 in number. Of these 89 were 

 acquired by presentation, 24 by purchase, 22 were received on 

 deposit, 39 in exchai^ge, and 2 were born in the Gardens. 



The total number of departures during the month, by death 

 and by removals, was 199. 



Amongst the additions special attention may be called to the 

 following: — 



1 Reen Gazelle (Gazella 7ncirica) irom Central Arabia, deposited 

 on November 20th. 



1 Uvsean Parrakeet {^Nym2}hicus uvceensis) from the Loyalty 

 Islands, deposited on November 9th. 



A collection of 35 birds, including 1 1 Blue Birds (Sialia sialis), 

 2 Red -tailed Buzzards [Bioteo horealis), 6 Hermit Thrushes 

 {^Hylocichla guttata 2xdlasi), 4 Wood Thrushes [Hylocichla muste- 

 lina), and others from North America, received in exchange from 

 the New York Zoological Society on November 18th. 



Mrs. R. Haig Thomas, F.Z.S., exhibited seven skins of Hybrid 

 Pheasants and made the following remarks : — 



One of the pheasants exhibited here this evening is rather 

 interesting to students of Heredity. The following is a short 

 account of the pedigree of this bird : — 



On March 1st, 1907, two silver hens were mated with a 

 Swinhoe cock. Twenty F. 1 hybrids were reared, thirteen cocks 

 and seven hens. 



On January 14th, 1908, the seven F. 1 hens were mated with 

 the same Swinhoe cock, and from these were reared five F. 2 

 hybrids, fovir cocks and one hen. It is about this hen I wish to 

 say a few words. 



We have plenty of evidence of hens transmitting the cock 

 plumage of their kind to hybrid male descendants, but T am not 

 aware that any record of the converse happening has been 

 published. 



The Mendelian theory that the male is a homozygote for 

 sex pure in maleness and the female a heterozygote carrying 

 both sexes in its germ cells, gives us a very clear interpretation 

 of certain recent sex experiments, but it must be admitted that 

 it is difficult to explain on this hypothesis how the Swinhoe cock 

 has handed down to his progeny the exact plumage of the hens 

 of his species. If you compare the F. 2 hen with the pure 



