A Darwinian Theory. 219 



on her nest, and very sensibly solaced himself and her with 

 such music as he was capable of making. It was, however, 

 anything but melodious, and may be represented as a sort of 

 compound of the filing of a saw and the screech of a peacock. 

 There are two notes only, uttered in quick succession, and 

 represented by the Japanese name of the bird — Ki-ji ; but the 

 second note is much longer, louder, and more discordant, 

 in fact has more of the saw-fiUng character — Kee-jaeae. These 

 two notes are uttered, and if the bird is not disturbed they are 

 repeated in about five minutes. A good many attempts, 

 perhaps twenty, to become better acquainted -ndth this 

 individual all failed. It seemed impossible to make him fly, 

 though his covert was by no means extensive.' " 



This species is readily distinguished by the widely separated 

 transverse bands on the tail of the male, and the short, rounded 

 tail of the female (Sin. in length, that of the male being 23in.), 

 the feathers of which are tipped with white at the extremity. 

 We are not aware of any hybrids between this and allied species, 

 although their production would be very interesting as bearing 

 on a suggestion made by Darwin to the effect that " if the female 

 Soemmerring pheasant with her short tail were crossed with 

 the male common pheasant, there could be no doubt that the 

 male hybrid offspring would have a much longer tail than that 

 of the pure offspring of the common pheasant. On the other 

 hand, if the female common pheasant, with her tail nearly 

 twice as long as that of the female Soemmerring pheasant, 

 were crossed with the male of the latter, the male hybrid 

 offspring would have a much shorter tail than that of the pure 

 offspring of Scemmerring's pheasant." — " The Descent of 

 Man," Vol. II., p. 156. 



The following description of the two sexes is taken from 

 Gould's " Birds of Asia " : " The male has the whole of the 

 upper surface and throat of a fine coppery brown, with a 

 lighter border to each feather, which in some Hghts appear 

 of a purple hue ; in others rich coppery red, and in others 

 again bright but deep flame colour — this latter tint being 



