The Ring-necked Pheasant. 
is as perfect as in the pure bird, aiul the plumage as a whole 
almost identical with that of the wild species. In many locali- 
ties the interbreeding has been carried still further and the birds 
comprise more or less in their plumage the colouration of three 
species, viz : F. torquatus, colchicus and versicolor. Some 
years ago, after a shoot in his preserves, Capt. J. S. Reeve sent 
me a male and two females — the male bird was an instance of 
this triple-species form, P. versicolor beini^- dominant in the 
plumage, with both colchicus and torquatus clearly indicated — I 
have regretted many times since that I did not have the skin 
preserved. 
In captivity torquatus is a hardy bird, our worst weather 
not affecting it in the least ; it is also very beautiful, and in a 
roomy run (flight) is an object of admiration to all who see it. 
1 had better here describe the origin of my pair. In 1917 my 
fellow member Miss M. L. Harbord took a clutch of thirteen 
eggs from a sitting wild bird (Lorton Park, Cumberland) and 
put them under a domestic hen; every egg hatched out, but 
owing to a chapter of accidents only three were reared; these 
were sent to me when about three months old; one, probably a 
hen, died two days after arrival; the other two were both cocks, 
and ultimately, when in full plumage, scarcely to be disting- 
uished from the wild species. The following spring Capt. J. 
S. Reeve kindly sent me four hens from his coverts at Leaden- 
ham; these were very wild when first turned out, and one so 
damaged its skull that it soon died, though in a very roomy 
enclosure; another following it a year later. The other two 
are still living, one paired to a Ring-neck, and the other to a 
Gold Pheasant. It is more than possible that these hens contain 
the blood of three species, viz : torquatus, colchicus and versi- 
color; while the cocks are apparently almost pure torquattis-- 
they certainly are so in plumage. It is with this pair I propose 
to deal. 
I should say my main object is to breed under natural 
conditions, and not to rear, as is the common custom, by the aid 
of domestic hens. For two years they had the run of my 
largest aviary, where they did not interfere with the small 
passerine birds (foreign species') occupying it. The first year 
the hen made a scrape and laid during the season over sixty 
eggs, but made no attempt to sit, though the scrape was well 
