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Show 1875.] MR. W. B. TEGETMEIER ON TWO HYBRID PHEASANTS. 317 Mr. Edward R. Alston, F.Z.S., exhibited a rufous variety of the murine Dormouse, Graphiurus murinus (Desm.)*, from West Africa, which had been sent to him for examination by Professor Young, of the University of Glasgow. He observed that this species varied much in the grey of the back, being more or less tinged with brown, and in the way in which the white of the lower parts sometimes passes into rufous. Hence it had been described under the various names Myoxus coupei, F. Cuvier f, M. erythobronchus, A. Smithy, and M. cineraceus, Riippell§ ; but these species had all been reunited by Smutsfl an(l by Dr. Peters^]". None of the descriptions, however, agreed with the coloration of the present specimen, which was of a nearly uniform dull pale rufous, passing beneath into a dark yellowish grey. It agreed perfectly, however, in all other characters with normal individuals of G. murinus, and was doubtless merely an extreme example of the rufous variation. Mr. Alston also remarked that the type of G. elegans, Ogilby **, now in the British Museum, seemed to be only a young specimen of G. capensis, F. Cuvier, and that consequently only two species of this genus appear to be well established. A communication was read from Lieut. R. J. Wardlaw-Ramsay, F.Z.S., dated " Tonghoo, British Burmah, Nov. 22nd, 1874," containing the following remarks on his Gecinus erythropygius ft (P. Z. S. 1874, p. 212, pl. xxxv.) : - " I have just obtained a pair of specimens of Gecinus erythropygius, in which the yellowish facial streak is entirely wanting. My original description was taken from a pair ( cf and 2 ) hi which the streak was strongly marked in the former and absent in the latter-on which ground I considered it to be a sexual distinction. Mr. Hume, in his description of this bird as G. nigri-genis ('Stray Feathers,' 1874, p. 446), tells us that among his specimens there is one only, and that a 5, which has the streak ; from which it would appear that both sexes are sometimes found with it, but that it is not constant in either." Mr. W . B. Tegetmeier, F.Z.S., exhibited two specimens of wild-bred hybrid Pheasant between Phasianus colchicus and Euplocamus nycthemerus, lately shot in Surrey, and made the following remarks :- " The two hybrid Pheasants exhibited resulted from the escape of a .Silver Pheasant hen from confinement, and her association with the common Pheasant in a preserve. * Mammalogie, Suppl. p. 542 (1820). t Hist. Nat. des M a m m . iii. pl. 251 (1822). J Zool. Journal, iv. p. 438 (1829). § Mus. Senckenbergianum, iii. p. 136 (1845). || Enum. M a m m . Capensium, p. 34 (1832). ^ Eeise nach Mossambique, p. 136 (1852). ** P. Z. S. 1838, p. 5. tt It appears that this species had been previously described and figured by Mr. Elliot, in Nouv. Archiv. du Museum (Bulletin), 18G5, p. 70, pl. iii., a's Gecinus erythropygius (cf. Walden, ' Ibis,' 1875, p. 148). |
