GAME BIRDS. 183 
Naturalists have frequently noticed the fact that the 
hen pheasant will sometimes partially assume the plu- 
mage of the male. Montagu says, “in confinement ;” 
and adds, “in a state of nature this circumstance pro- 
bably does not take place. It is not, however, restricted 
to birds in confinement, for I have met with well-defined 
instances of it in wild birds. It is rarely that the full 
plumage of the male is assumed; but the change is 
most frequently confined to the head, neck, and breast, 
the black margins on the feathers of the latter not being 
so well defined as in the male, and consequently the 
contrast does not appear so rich. Sometimes the spurs 
are put on also. 
In March, 1854, I met with a well-marked instance 
of this singular change. The head and neck were of 
the usual purplish green, and the bare skin around the 
eye bright scarlet ; the breast and shoulders were glossy 
golden red, especially the former, each feather possess- 
ing the ordinary broad margin of velvety black. The 
rest of the plumage was entirely that of the female, but 
the change was further indicated by a small pair of 
spurs. This assumption by the female of the plumage 
of the other sex is well known to be produced by 
diseased ovaries, and is not necessarily connected with 
age. 
I have before me the notes of a remarkable instance 
of transformation from the same cause in a domestic 
fowl of the black bantam kind, which belonged to my 
friend Mr. T. Sissons of Hull, by whom. she was bred. 
Up to the age of seven years she laid abundance of eggs 
at all seasons, but never sat, or showed any wish to incu- 
bate. . In her eighth year she ceased to lay, and began 
to assume the male dress, which in the following year 
