PHEASA.NT. 101 



In the last Edition mention is made of a brace of cock 

 Pheasants which turned the scale at 91bs. ; hut this weight 

 has since been surpassed in several instances ; the heaviest 

 as yet on record being one described in ' The Field,' 

 vol. xlvi. p. 179, weighed independently by Mr. Kelly and 

 Admiral Sir Houston Stewart, and which attained to 61bs. 

 less loz. This was doubtless owing to the fattening influence 

 of feeding on maize ; and the average of an old cock bird 

 may be taken at 31bs. to S^^lbs., and a hen about 2Jlbs. 



Like other gallinaceous birds, the Pheasant has a strong 

 inclination to breed with other birds, not of its own species. 

 Edwards long ago figured, plate 337, a bird which was con- 

 sidered to have been produced between a Pheasant and a 

 Turkey. I have twice been shewn birds that were said to 

 be the produce of the Pheasant and the Guinea Fowl, and 

 the evidence to be derived from the plumage was in favour 

 of the statement. Of birds produced between the Pheasant 

 and the Black Grouse, several figures and particulars have 

 been given under the head of Black Grouse. Birds pro- 

 duced between the Pheasant and Common Fowl are of 

 frequent occurrence, and such a one is usually called a Pero. 

 The Zoological Society have possessed several, which were 

 for a time kept together, but shewed no signs of breeding ; 

 they are considered, like other hydrids, to be unproductive 

 among themselves, all being half-bred ; but when paired with 

 the true Pheasant or the Fowl, the case is different. In 

 September, 1836, a communication from Mr. Edward Fuller, 

 of Carleton Hall, near Saxmundham, was read, which stated 

 that his gamekeeper had succeeded in rearing two birds 

 from a Barn-door Hen having a cross from a Pheasant, and 

 a Pheasant cock ; that the birds partook equally of the two 

 species in their habits, manners and appearance, and con- 

 cluded by presenting them to the Society. The gamekeeper, 

 in a short note which accompanied the birds, stated that he 

 had bred them, and they were three-quarter-bred Phea- 

 sants. (Zool. Proceedings for 1836, p. 84.) Several speci- 

 mens of hybrids, from the preserved collection in the Museum 

 of the Society, were placed on the table the same evening 



