SPECIES HYBRIDIZATION AMONG PHEASANTS. 257 



hybridization have opened ont. They will serve to suggest the 

 lines along which further research may be most advantageously 

 continued. 



In making the examination of the skins, I confined my atten- 

 tion to three restricted areas of the plumage of the male, leaving 

 the female plumage for subsequent examination. These areas 

 are : (1) The Interscapular Feathers ; (2) The Primaries and 

 Secondaries of the Wings ; (3) The two Central Eectrices (one 

 right, one left) of the tail. 



The chief effects of the various crosses appear to be as 

 follows : — 



(1) The Interscapular Plumage. — The first hybrid genera- 

 tion derived from Silver ? x Swinhoe $ does not give uniform 

 results. I purpose dealing with the interesting details of the 

 polymorphism of the F 2 generation in a subsequent and detailed 

 paper. But one of the most interesting features of this genera- 

 tion is that it appears to manifest a translocation of a plumage 

 character not only from the female sex of one of the parental 

 species to the opposite sex of the hybrid, but from one body 

 region of the female of the species to another body region of the 

 opposite sex of the hybrid. The transmission of the female 

 plumage of one region to the same region in the male of the 

 same race or sub-breed of the same species is a well-known 

 phenomenon. But as far as I know, the result I have just 

 described is new. It is, however, necessary to say that the 

 hybrid character is not identical with the species character with 

 which it is compared, and that there is an alternative inter- 

 pretation ; but I am afraid I have not space to enter here into 

 details. The features of this generation also suggest that not 

 only does the male of a species transmit some of the secondary 

 sexual characters of the female of his species, but that the female 

 of a species may transmit those of the male.* 



The second hybrid generation (F-,^ hybrid $ x Silver species 

 2 ) is not uniform. The same sort of translocation as that 

 described in F x also appears in this generation. There is also a 

 reduction in the number of pencillings characteristic of the 

 parental species (E. nycthemerus, $ ). 



* In this particular case the male of one parental species was cqncerned, 

 while the female was of the other parental species. 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. X VII., July, 1913. x 



