134 Geoffrey H. Clark—The Melanistic Mutant Pheasant


can illustrate my point more clearly than any other. I admit that this

is largely in the nature of conjecture, but unless the propagation of the

Melanistic Mutant is entirely fortuitous, and facts seem against this,

there can be no other explanation.


There is one last suggestion I have to make. It is generally agreed

that in its wild state the Pheasant is monogamous, or perhaps I ought

to say, is by nature monogamous, for in many places it is forced into

polygamy. But of recent times, within a few thousand years, it had

abandoned the path of virtue and now the cock likes to keep a harem.

This being the case it is necessary that more cocks should be killed

than hens to preserve the balance of the species. Nature has, therefore,

equipped the cock bird with a very eye-taking uniform so that it will

be more conspicuous to those creatures that prey on it than the dowdy

hen. The livery of the Melanistic cock, however, although undoubtedly

handsome, is not nearly so conspicuous as that of, say, Torquatus or

Colchicus. Its greens and greys harmonize excellently with the reeds

amongst which it lived in its first incarnation, with the result that the

sexes would be killed by vermin in about equal proportions. Does this

not seem to point to yet another reversal to the conditions prevailing

in the days of the original Pheasant ? I have not had much to do with

these birds in their second reincarnation, and so cannot say whether

they are monogamous in the wild state. Nor can anyone else, I think,

as these birds seem only to have come under observation in the breeding

pens where custom allows them many wives.


I freely admit that a lot of the foregoing is conjecture, as indeed

is most of the matter in connection with this bird of mystery, and I

would not for one moment wish to force my opinions down anyone’s

throat. It is said, however, that nothing happens in Nature for which

there is not a good reason, and it is in an honest endeavour to fathom

these reasons that I put forward these suggestions.


[Whether the Melanistic Pheasant, which is now known as Phasianus

colchicus mut. tenebrosus, is a reversion to the original type or not is

difficult to prove, but similar mutants have appeared in other species,

such as the Golden Pheasant and the Peacock, in both of which the

variety breeds true to type and, moreover, the melanistic blood seems to

predominate. Melanism, when it appears as a “ sport ” is very



