RECIPROCAL CROSSES BETWEEN REEVES'S PHEAS- 

 ANT AND THE COMMON RING-NECK PHEASANT 

 PRODUCING UNLIKE HYBRIDS 



Many sex-linked characters have been described in birds 

 (fowls, pigeons, canaries and doves). The pheasant hybrids to 

 be described, however, show merely a different appearance of 

 male sexual plumage characters in the ¥ 1 hybrids of a reciprocal 

 cross between Reeves's pheasant and the common ring-neck 

 pheasant (P. torquatus). These hybrids are sterile, and there- 

 fore the experiment ends with the first cross, although Cronau 1 

 stated that the offspring from a Reeves's cock and common 

 pheasant hen were occasionally fertile. Poll, 2 however, who 

 studied the spermatogenesis of numerous pheasant crosses, found 

 the hybrids between Reeves's and the common pheasants and 

 between Reeves's and Sommerings's pheasants always sterile. 



The Reeves's pheasant was originally given generic recogni- 

 tion by Wagler under the name Syrmaticus rccvcsi. This dis- 

 tinction it certainly deserves, although later writers have often 

 placed it under Phasianus. The ring-neck pheasant, so called, 

 refers to the common stock pheasant which is now practically 

 pure torquatus. 



In the fall of 1911 two hens were mated as follows: Pen D 

 contained a J 1 Reeves's with two ring-neck hens; pen H a J 1 

 ring-neck with two Reeves's hens. These were all birds of the 

 season. The Reeves's were from the same clutch of eggs from 

 a single pair, and the ring-necks from a strain of which large 

 numbers have been bred on the farm. The Reeves's never, to 

 my knowledge, shows any variation of plumage in captivity. 

 The strain of ring-necks is practically constant, though the white 

 neck ring sometimes differs in its width. 



It is therefore fair to suppose that the somatic difference of 

 the hybrids to be described is a constant feature, although from 

 pen D only two males were reared to maturity, and from pen H 

 only four. The six birds, however, immediately fall into two 

 classes. They have all the appearance of two well-marked spe- 

 cies. Hens were reared only from pen H. 



