76 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 



davisoni. Mr. Gates considers this form the true 

 andersoni, and calls the Ruby Mines birds Gen- 

 nceus rufipes. All I can say is, however, that what 

 I have above described as G. andersoni corresponds 

 with .the typical specimen in Calcutta and with 

 the figures which have been published to accom- 

 pany accounts of that species, so that there should 

 be no doubt about it. 



Blanford, in the Fauna of British India, sug- 

 gests that G. andersoni maj' after all only be a cross 

 between the Lineated Kaleege and the Chinese Silver 

 Pheasant ; and certainly there is a stuffed speci- 

 men of this cross in the Paris Museum which no 

 body could call anything. else but an Anderson's 

 Silver Pheasant if they did not know its origin. 

 On the other hand, the uniformity of the type, in 

 several specimens might be used as an argument 

 for its distinctness. Many hybrids, however, are 

 known to be very uniform in t5^e, especially 

 those between the Golden and Amherst Pheasants, 

 and the goldfinch and bullfinch. Moreover, inter- 

 mediate forms appear to occur between Ander- 

 son's and the Lineated Pheasant, and also between 

 the former and the true Chinese Silver Pheasant, 

 so that on our eastern frontiers there seems to be 

 a great deal of confusion among these birds which 

 has not yet been cleared up. Experimental breed- 

 ing in confinement ought to settle the matter, and 

 with birds so easily kept and studied as are the 

 kaleeges the problem might be solved in a few years. 



I have dwelt on this point at such length because 

 the same remarks apply to the other doubtful 

 forms I shall now describe, though none of these 

 are so interesting as the Anderson's Silver Pheasant, 



