34 Mr. Fohn Flower. 
6.—ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTEs. 
By the President, Joun Fiower, M.A., F.Z.S. 
[Read March 19th, 1879.] 
Sterile Grey Hen (T. tetrix) partly in male plumage.—This 
bird, which has been preserved by Burton, of Wardour Street, 
I bought in Leadenhall Market, on September aist last. It 
came up, with a number of other game birds, from Girvan, in 
Ayrshire. Sterile Grey Hens, in this sort of plumage, are not 
uncommon. Some of them are said to be old birds which 
have ceased to lay, whilst others appear to be young, but, 
whether old or young, this abnormal plumage seems to be 
always due to one cause, viz., a diseased state of the ovaries. 
It is a most remarkable thing that this cause should produce 
such a change in the plumage, but that it does do so, not only 
in this species, but in pheasants, and other allied birds, is now 
thoroughly well established. Sterility seems, further, to have 
had the effect, in this case, of considerably increasing the size 
of the bird. A very large Grey Hen will weigh about 2-lbs., 
but this bird, which was not in particularly good condition, 
weighed 2-lb. 44-0oz. The bones, too, which are on the table, 
are considerably larger than those of an ordinary Grey Hen, 
they are also somewhat softer in texture, and the processes are 
not so well developed. These peculiarities all seem to indicate 
that the defective constitutional condition which produced 
the sterility was developed at an early period, and before the 
bird was fully grown, and it seems probable, therefore, that 
this hen never was anything but sterile. Birds are not the only 
animals in which this singular phenomenon occurs, of the 
female assuming male characteristics. In the deer tribe, with 
the exception of the reindeer, the females have no horns. But 
a few cases are on record of the does of fallow deer, and, I 
believe, also of the hinds of red deer, developing horns, and 
these cases have also been proved to be due to a diseased state 
of the ovaries. Like all departures from the ordinary course 
of nature, these abnormal growths are of great interest 
physiologically. They show, what probably few people would 
suspect without some such proof, that many of what we are 
accustomed to regard as essential characteristics of the male 
and female sexes, are really, comparatively speaking, 
superficial, and that they are connected by the mysterious 
laws of correlation of growth, with the generative organs. If 
the testes of the young male be removed, many of the most 
prominent characteristics of the male sex are not developed, 
and, on the other hand, a diseased state of the ovaries of the 
