132 Geoffrey H. Clark—The Melanistic Mutant Pheasant



I was more or less given to understand that the bird was nothing

more than a dark sport not to be dignified with such a highfalutin

name as Melanistic Mutant.


Two cardinal facts stand out about the bird, namely : That it breeds

true to its type and that it made a simultaneous appearance in more

than one part of the world at once. Now a local variation may breed

true to its type given that conditions remain the same year after year,

but in no circumstances does a local variation turn up in such widely

separated places as those mentioned. This seems to show that it is

not a sport or it would revert to its nearer ancestors, and that it is not

a local variation or it would not show in several places. We are, then,

faced with the problem, what is it ? The answer is, I think, that it is

a complete reversal to the old original form of Pheasant from which

all known modern varieties have sprung.


This is a very sweeping statement I know, but I will endeavour to

prove it to the best of my abilities. The first point is that Melanistic

Mutant blood is far stronger than that of any of the ordinary covert

breeds. In all crossings it is the Melanistic blood that predominates.

This seems to indicate that there is something very special about it,

for it seems unlikely that the blood of a sport or local variation would

triumph over that of Colchicus or any other firmly established breed.

This brings us to the question : If the Melanistic Mutant be the old

original Pheasant, what then are Colchicus, Torquatus, and such

breeds ? These, I think, are the local variations. It is generally

accepted that a local sub-species will continue to breed true to its

type as long as conditions similar to those which evolved the type

continue, and as long as it is not swamped out with foreign blood.


When I was very young, I learned chemistry at school. Very little

knowledge was thus inculcated into me as I spent most of the period

in making surreptitious stinks under cover of a bench, but a little has

remained. I remember that if a piece of metal is treated in a certain

way, the exact treatment eludes me, it gives off a noisome smell and

becomes a salt of that particular metal. If this salt is then subjected

to another treatment it turns back to the original metal once more.

It is my opinion that something similar has happened to the Pheasant.

I do not, of course, intend that this parallel be taken scientifically, but



