C03I3ION PHEASANT. 285 



manners, and appearance, and concluded by presenting them 

 to the Society. The gamekeeper of Edward Fuller, Esq. in 

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

 bred them, and they were three-quarter-bred Pheasants. — 

 Zool. Proceedings for 1886, p. 84. Several specimens of 

 hybrids, from the preserved collection in the Museum of the 

 Society, were placed on the table the same evening for exhi- 

 bition and comparison. These had been bred between the 

 Pheasant and Common Fowl, the Common Pheasant and 

 the Silver Pheasant, and the Common Pheasant with the 

 Gold Pheasant. 



A history of our Pheasant would be incomplete if left 

 without any notice of that remarkable assumption of a plum- 

 age resembling the male observed to take place in some of the 

 females, which is well knoAvn to sportsmen and gamekeepers, 

 by whom such birds are usually called Mule Pheasants. The 

 name is correct, since some of our dictionaries show that the 

 term mule is derived from a word which signifies barren, and 

 these hen Pheasants are incapable of producing eggs from 

 derangement of the generative organs ; sometimes an original 

 internal defect, sometimes from subsequent disease, and 

 sometimes from old age. The illustration here given repre- 

 sents on a small scale a preparation of part of the body of a 

 healthy female Pheasant in Avinter, in the left hand figure ; 

 and that of a diseased female Pheasant on the right hand. 

 The disorganisation is marked by the appearance of the dark 

 lead colour pervading the ovarium, situated on the middle 

 line, and between the two kidneys, which dark colour is seen 

 in patches on various parts of the oviduct below ; and I have 

 never examined a hen Pheasant assuming the plumage of the 

 male without finding more or less of the appearance here in- 

 dicated. The subject, however, in its details, is unsuited to 

 our popular work ; but those who desire to carry their inves- 

 tigation further will find a paper by Dr. Butter in the third 



