182 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
T have been favoured by the Rev. C. Thompson, rector 
of Kirton near Ollerton, with some particulars of two 
birds which he shot in Kirton Wood, in October, 1865. 
From the description he has sent me, I think it most pro- 
bable that they were hybrids between the blackcock and 
the pheasant. The first was shot in an isolated part of 
the wood, and proved to be a female. It was about the 
size of a blackcock, with naked legs and feet. The 
plumage on the back and neck was mottled brown and 
black, very similar to the back of the common snipe ; 
breast and belly, brownish-white, not unlike the breast 
of a wild duck; tail square, with the two centre feathers 
rather longer than the rest, and the whole of them 
slightly tipped with white. Mr. Thompson had seen 
this bird in the same wood the previous winter, and she 
had also been noticed in the summer with two nearly 
full-grown young ones, in a cornfield near. She was killed 
on the 3rd of October, and on the following day Mr. 
Thompson shot in the same wood a male bird equally 
remarkable in its peculiarities. Its size was about that 
of a cock pheasant, but the whole of the plumage of 
the body was mottled black and brown; the head was 
black ; neck, very dark glossy green; a ring of bright 
scarlet skin round the eye; iris black; tail similar in 
suape to that of a cock pheasant, but shorter, the colour 
dark brown, having each feather tipped with black; 
legs and feet naked. 
Mr. Thompson thinks, and with great probability, that 
this bird was the offspring of the hen he shot the day 
before, one of the two young ones previously mentioned. 
I much regret that these two birds were not pre- 
served ; but Mr. Thompson was not aware of their value 
as instances of hybridism. 
