Ornithological and Other Oddities 



being a notoriously good nurse for young canaries. 

 Another common hybrid, that between the fowl 

 and pheasant, is also well known to be sterile, as 

 likewise are those between very distinct genera 

 of pheasants. Nevertheless, fertile hybrids have 

 been so often recorded in some cases that there 

 is no possible doubt about them. A good typical 

 instance is that of the hybrid between the gold 

 pheasant and Lady Amherst's pheasant (Chryso- 

 lophus pictus and C. Amherstioe). The details of 

 plumage in these birds are quite different, apart 

 from the very different coloration of gold and scar- 

 let in the one and dark-green and white in the 

 other. The Amherst has a much larger tail, but 

 a smaller crest, which grows only from the back 

 of the head ; his ruff is also fuller, and the feathers 

 composing it are rounded instead of squared at the 

 tips. The hens also, though much alike at the 

 first glance, can easily be told apart, the Amherst 

 hen being bigger with a smaller head, and having 

 a bare livid patch round the eye and lead- 

 coloured legs, while the gold pheasant hen has 

 dull yellow legs and the face feathered over. 



Now the hybrids between these two very dis- 

 tinct birds are fertile every way, either between 

 themselves or with the parent stocks. Indeed, 

 when Amherst hens were scarce, which was the 

 case for some time after the introduction of the 



species, it was a common practice to pair Am- 



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