MR J. P. SELBY'S NOTICE OF A CURIOUS HYBRID. *J:J1 



is wanting : in fact, according to the views of the first ornithologists 

 of the day, the respective parents belong not only to different gem ia, 

 but to distinct groups of greater value or extent, the one belonging 

 to the family Pavonidte, Swainson, the other to the Tetraonidce of the 

 same author ; and we may farther remark, that the habits of the two 

 differ considerably from each other. This interesting and remarkable 

 hybrid was shot on the 2d of December, by Lord Howick, at Cheving- 

 ton Wood, a large cover belonging to Earl Grey, two or three miles 

 to the east of Felton. It proved a male, and partakes of the charac- 

 ters of both parents in nearly an equal degree. Its length, measuring 

 from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, is two feet one and a-half 

 inch in breadth; with wings extended, two feet six and a-half inches. 

 The tail, which is considerably rounded, is upwards of eight inches 

 in length. The bill is intermediate in size and form between that of 

 the black-cock and the pheasant. The upper mandible blackish-horn 

 colour, the under paler. It possesses the naked papillous skin of the 

 pheasant around the eye, but not to so great an extent ; and the super- 

 ciliary comb of the black-cock is fully developed. The tarsi are about 

 two and three-quarter inches in length, feathered anteriorly like the 

 black-cock for rather more than half their length. The feet partake 

 of the character of both parents. The whole of the head and neck 

 is of a deep purplish-black, with a rich metallic gloss. The breast 

 and lower parts black, with several of the feathers upon the breast 

 and sides shewing, upon being turned up, the arched cross-bar of the 

 cock pheasant ; thighs and legs yellowish-white, barred with black. 

 The mantle or upper back is of a purplish-brown, the feathers par- 

 taking of the markings of the pheasant ; the wing-coverts the same. 

 The lower back is of a rich purplish-black. The tail, which is round- 

 ed, has the basal part of the feathers marked like those of the phea- 

 sant ; their tips, with the exception of the two middle feathers, black 

 for nearly two inches. It has no projecting spurs like the pheasant, 

 but a scale considerably larger than the rest on each leg, indicates 

 the place where they project in that bird. Chevington Wood is with- 

 in a short distance of Aclington Park, where the female hybrid of the 

 same cross, presented to the Natural History Society, Newcastle, by 

 the Duke of Northumberland, was killed about sixteen months ago. 

 In all probability these two birds belonged to the same hatching. 

 Upon dissection, the lobes covering the nostrils were observed to be 

 not more than half the size of those of the pheasant; the processes at 

 the root of the tongue larger than those of the pheasant. The g 

 nil form of the body thicker than that of the pheasant; the exterior 

 pectoral muscles much darker in colour than in the pin -a- ant. Length 

 of the crest or keel of breast-bone in the hybrid four inches and three- 

 fourths; that of a middle-sized cock pheasant nearly tour iiu IK , 

 (Ji//ard large; pruventriculus thick and slightly corniiraU'd; gizzaid 



