204 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



figuring any hybrid pheasants, I have been induced to show 

 this one, merely from its great beaaty and the comparative 

 rarity of at least one of its parents ; but at the same time I 

 cannot but believe that all those who breed pheasants, 

 either for pleasure or profit, would best consult their own 

 interests by keeping their birds as pure in blood as possible, 

 allowing no foreign strain to intermingle, and resolutely 

 setting their faces against even such a magnificent impostor 

 as here offers himself for our admiration." I quote this 

 passage as illustrative of the beauty of the birds, although I 

 differ entirely from the conclusions arrived at by the writer. 

 There can be no possible doubt of the perfect fertility of the 

 half-bred Amhersts. Mated with the pure Amherst, three- 

 quarter pure-bred birds are the result ; these show very little 

 trace of the Golden species. The half-bred Gold and Amherst 

 are equally fertile when m&,ted with one another, and an 

 intermediate breed may'.be perpetuated, which possesses the 

 united beauties of both parent species, and be perfectly 

 permanent in its characters. 



The perpetuation of permanent races produced by the 

 union of two perfectly distinct species is well known to all 

 who do not wilfully shut their eyes to those facts which do 

 not square with their theories. The late Mr. E. Blyth, a 

 most accurate observer, and whose knowledge of species was 

 unsurpassed, informed me that over a large extent of India 

 no other domestic goose is known except the cross between 

 the Chinese species, the Anser cygnoides, and the domesticated 

 variety of the grey-lag, Anser ferus. 



In, the case of the true pheasants, Phasianus colchicus, 

 P. torquatus, and P. versicolor, every variety of interbreeding 

 takes place, and the intermediate forms can be perpetuated 

 as may be desired ; or, as was originally the case with the P. 

 versicolor in this country, the pure breed can be established 

 from a single individual. 



Most naturahsts maintain that these three pheasants are 

 perfectly good species ; but what is the test of a species ? 



