On Female Pheasants assuming the Male Plumage. 305 



the time of her death, she was thirteen or fourteen years old, 

 and it was then four years and six months since the change had 

 commenced* The plumage was exactly similar to that of the 

 male bird in its best state, as may still be seen in the specimen, 

 which is deposited in the Museum. 



The sexual organs were also preserved : On dissecting them 

 there were found, beside the ovarium, which still remained, two 

 small bodies which appeared to be vestiges of the last eggs that 

 had escaped from the ovarian sac. The aduterum (or horns of 

 the uterus) was very distinct, and of an ovoidal form. The pre- 

 sence of the ovarium is an important fact, from the observations 

 on this subject made by Vicq-d'Azyr and Manduit. 



The feathers shed during the years that preceded the last 

 moult, have also been preserved through the care of the first 

 possessors of the bird ; and it is to this circumstance, as well as 

 the accounts with which they have obligingly furnished me, that 

 I owe the knowledge of a great part of the details which I have 

 given. 



Change of Plumage in the Collared Pheasant — The female 

 of the collared pheasant of which we have here to speak, was 

 brought up, like the preceding, near Paris, by a private person, 

 and it was, like it, also given to the museum in its old age. The 

 accounts furnished by the giver make it appear that it had laid 

 several times while in his possession. However, as the change 

 of the plumage was at the time' of its delivery much advanced, 

 and as it then presented more of the external appearance of 

 a male than of a female, it was thought expedient, when its 

 death took place some time after, to determine its true sex by 

 the dissection of the genital organs. 



The colours were in fact very like those of a male, as may still 

 be seen in the galleries of the Museum, where its spoil is depo- 

 sited. However, the upper coverts of the tail and wings were 

 red, like the rest of the body, the collar less marked, and the 

 belly much blacker than the male, so that it was still far from 

 having that complete and perfect resemblance of which we gave 

 an example in the silver pheasant. Nor would we have spoken 

 here of this female, which besides we did not see alive, and whose 



JULr OCTOBER 1826. U 



