(6) has been shown to contain nucleic acid sequences of both the endogenous virus genes and the exogenously infecting viruses (7). Likewise, endogenous viral genes were shown to exist in ring-necked pheasant and golden pheasant cells, and the new viruses isolated from these cells were called RAV-61 and golden pheasant virus (GPV) respectively (8, 9). The main criteria for the recovery of new viral genetic information in these isolates were the properties of viruses specified by the viral envelope, such as host range, sensitivity to interference, and antigenicity, which are the basis for the subgroup classification of ALSV.In the previous studies, we found no clear correlation between the expression of group specific antigens of ALSV in pheasant embryo cultures and the ease with which RAV-61 was recovered from the particular cultures (8). Further studies on the correlation of these two phenomena in other pheasant cells led us to the discovery that the GPV and another similar isolate from Amherst pheasants are different from the members of known ALSV in their structural pro-