170 A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



is the comb. The compressed tail is found in Lophura, Acomus, Lobiophasis and 

 others ; the lateral wattles and the hackles in ChrysolopJms, and the median wattle in 

 Tragopan. 



The four species fall into two quite distinct but unequal divisions, good subgenera 

 they might be called ; first, galhis, lafayetti and sonnerati, and second, varius. These 

 have been considered as two genera {Galhis and Creagrius) by a few writers, e.g. Ghigi, 

 1903. Farius possesses the peculiarities of a smooth-edged comb, a median throat 

 wattle, truncated neck hackles and an extra pair of rectrices. Taking the group as a 

 whole, however, the hiatus between the four species and the nearest related genera 

 seems much greater than between the two groups themselves. So I choose to keep 

 them together. And here comes in the question of logicality ; whether by doing this 

 I have not been somewhat illogical in comparison with other generic divisions. This 

 is of not the slightest moment to me. No two genera of the Phasianidae or any other 

 group of organisms, as now isolated by time and space on the earth, are separated from 

 each other by exactly the same intervals of character distinction. Classification, we all 

 admit, is merely the make-shift, incident upon, and made necessary or indeed possible 

 by, our ignorance of intervening forms. Hence relative clarity of interrelations is its 

 sole aim. In this instance the genus Callus, considered as embracing all four forms, 

 expresses much more exactly the homogeneity of the quartet as a whole than would 

 the isolation of varius, such segregation setting it as far apart from Callus as is the 

 genus Chrysolophus. 



There is no doubt that the Red Junglefowl alone is the direct ancestor of all of 

 our domestic poultry, so this question is removed from the discussion. Study of the 

 plumage of the four species shows a tangle of characters, which can be logically oriented 

 only when we think of all four birds having descended from some form quite different 

 and much more generalized than any of them are to-day. For example, taking the 

 cocks first, the ventral plumage brings gallus and varius close together ; the dorsal 

 surface shows a close similarity between gallus and lafayetti. Sonnerati, while it has 

 a general body plumage of a much more generalized pattern and coloration than any 

 of the others, has hackles and wing-coverts more specialized than in the other three, 

 the peculiar sealing-wax-like spots deserving of as great distinction as some would give 

 to varius for its peculiar characters. 



The hens, on the contrary, show propinquities entirely unlike those of the respective 

 cocks. The ventral plumage associates closely lafayetti and sonnerati, while the 

 dorsal patterns and colours indicate an affinity between gallus and sonnerati, and the 

 generalized black and white wing-bars link lafayetti and varius. 



GALLUS 



Type. 



Gallus Linnaeus, Faun. Suecica, 1746, p. 61 G. gallus. 



^/<?c^t?r Klein, Hist, Av. Prodr. 1750, p. Ill ...... G. gallus. 



Creagrius Gloger, Hand- u. Hilfeb. 1842, p. 387 G. varius. 



This well-marked group of four species is widely distributed throughout India, 

 Burma and the Malay Peninsula, Ceylon and Java. Where it occurs outside of these 

 regions it has probably been introduced by man. The four species are as follows — 



