1:!34 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



perfectly good species; but wliat is the test of a species'' 

 For my own part, I am sufliciently heteroiLjx in iny belief to 

 regard all the true restricted pheasants, sncli as /'. colcltirnti, 

 vrrsiroliir, t(>r<innt us, sliairii, moiujul icusj rh-ijnus, &c., as mere 

 geographical vaxiatious of one type, capable of breeding 

 together and perpetun.ting any cross that it may please 

 exjierimenters tu "[jrodnce ; and in the same manner the two 

 s]iecies of the genus Thainualea, namely, the Gold and Amherst 

 pheasants, may be regarded as geographical races capable of 

 yielding a permanent race intermediate between the two. 



These views, which I maintained at the time of the publica- 

 tion of the first edition of this work in 1873, have been fully 

 boi'ue out Ijy later expe]'ienci\ In 1881, the late Mr. A. D. 

 Bartlett, then su]5erinteudent oi the Zoological Gardens, wrote 

 to me : " The hybrid Amhei-staud Gold pheasants breed freely 

 inter sr ; but, as far as I cau learn, in most cases the liroeders 

 have been breeding the half-bi'ed hens with the pure Amherst 

 males, for tlie ]>urp(jse of (ibtaining as near as possifile the 

 characters of the pui'e Amhci-st ; and this is very quickly 

 acci.implished, fur in the third generation all traces of the 

 Gold pheasant are lust, (jr nearlv so." 



The late Mr. Ilorne, \vi'iting to me in 187".>, said. "With 

 regard to the Gold and jVmhei'st pheasants being turned out 

 by landed pro])riet()rs, 1 know of a ]ilare in Ireland where 

 there are large niunbers of these hirds bi'eeding tou'ether in 

 a wild state^ and some of i\\v crosses are very beautiful. 

 There is als(j .an estate in Scotland where Amhersts have 

 lieeii at liberty lor years, and the owner wrote me that they 

 kept their own iprarters, not allowing the other jiheasants to 

 interfere with them. 1 agree with you that it is a. pitv more 

 <jf these birds are iK.t turned out, ;is tlie\' form a great 

 atti'actiou to jileasure u-kiuikIs. The easit'St way to brini;- it 

 about IS to uhi.-t. a, brood or two under hens in the kitchen 

 garden; and, as they become I'ully grown, they natiirallv fly 

 to the adj. jining trees, and continue to hang about the place 

 afterwa,rds." 



