139 [Vol. XXXV. 



mountain^ a species of Silver Pheasant on more tlian one 

 occasion, but had been unable to secure a specimen, 

 Mr. Baker said that he had been promised Silver Pheasants 

 from a certain locality in the Malay Peninsula, but had not 

 received any as yet. 



Mr. W. L. ScLATER : I should like to call the atten- 

 tion of the Members of the Club to the experiments of 

 Mr. Beebe, which were briefly alluded to by Mr. Bannermau. 

 Speaking from memory, the experiment was as follows : — ■ 

 Taking an example of the White- winged Dove of Arizona 

 {Melopelia asiatica), which lie had in captivity, he sub- 

 jected it for some months artificially to a very hot damp 

 atmosphere. At the end of this time the Dove had assumed 

 a darker and richer plumage, and would, if it had been 

 examined without prejudice, have been referred to an 

 entirely different species of Melopelia. This seems to me 

 to be one of the most remarkable instances of the effect of 

 environment on a species. 



The Chairman : In reply to Mr. Sclater, I should like to 

 draw the attention of the Members to one point in con- 

 nection with Mr. Beebe^s most extraordinary experiments, 

 and that is that they were entirely carried out under 

 artificial conditions, and we all know that in the higher 

 animals (such as mammals, reptiles, and birds), artificial 

 conditions bring about strong modifications of the external 

 characters, e. g. the colour and thickness of the fur in 

 mammals and the colour of the plumage in birds. Mr. Beebe 

 does not appear to have found out in his former series of 

 experiments whether the offspring of such artificially treated 

 birds would be affected by the damp or whether they would 

 still, in their first moult, revert to the original desert- 

 coloration. I think everything we see in a state of Nature 

 goes to prove that they would revert to the desert type. 

 We must wait till these further experiments are carried 

 out in order to be quite sure that in the cases mentioned 

 by Mr. Beebe the only factor affecting the coloration 

 is atmospheric moisture. I think certain cases such as 



