THE COMMON PHEASANT. 93 



hen were confined together, and invariahly every one of the chicks was pied. I have 

 tried the experiment frequently with the same resiilts." And a third states : — " I 

 deny that the cross between the white .and common pheasant will produce pied, 

 when both are pure bred. I have tried the cross in confinement for years, and 

 never procured one pied- bird from it ; and before the pied breed were introduced 

 into the preserves here, we had abundance of white cocks and white hens, and, 

 believing at that time that the pied was the result of a cross between the white 

 and common pheasant, I used to watch the nides of every white hen, and was 

 surprised that in no instance was there one pied chick, though some were white." 

 The explanation of the difBcidty of breeding pied birds from a white and a 

 coloured parent, and the ease with which ring-necks are produced and perpetuated, 

 is soon given. Ring-necks are derived more or less directly from the P. torquatus, 

 a permanent race or species, that has a strong tendency to reproduce its like ; but 

 white and pied birds are merely accidental variations, and not even a thoroughly 

 established breed, and therefore are not prepotent in propagating their Uke, but 

 have a strong tendency to throw back to the original stock from which they were 

 derived. 



