assumed by Female Birds. 227 



hen (Gallus) or a female Pheasant (Phasianus) would, if it 

 lived long enough, ahvays assume the plumage of the cock — 

 a stateraeut uhich lie afterwards modified into "almost 

 always," 



Yarrell corrected their mistakes in an elaborate paper read 

 before the Royal Society on the 10th May, 1827; but, much as 

 he had studied the subject, even he laid himself open to criti- 

 cism on two points. It will be seen that he did not consider 

 that a hen Pheasant {Phasianus culchicus) could ever assume 

 really perfect male plumage (/. c. pp. 1 & 7) ; but if domestic 

 P'owls occasionally do so, why not a Pheasant ? Indeed, 

 Avhat may fairly be called an instance in point is given in 

 the ' Norwich N. Trans.-" (iv. p. 184-, note), of a Pheasant, a 

 female, small in size, bnt in complete male attire, except that 

 it had no spurs. As a rule, however, the masculine garb 

 assumed by these hen Pheasants is but an approximation to 

 the real livery of the male; and is seldom quite the same 

 plumage in which a bond fide immature male Pheasant may be 

 found, being less spotted with black on the breast. Some- 

 times the first metamorphosis may be discovered in a mere 

 wash of red on the breast of a hen Pheasant, which is other- 

 wise in the normal plumage. 



Yarrell gives a figure of the internal organs of a normal 

 female Pheasant and of one, for comparison, assuming male 

 plumage (/. c. pi. xii.). In common with other observers, 

 he seems to have thought that a diseased state of the ovaries 

 always accompanied the change ; but it is hardly possible 

 that this can be so in cases where fertile eggs are known 

 to have been produced; and though we cannot give an in- 

 stance of this fertility in the Pheasant, cases are recorded 

 in the domestic Fowl* ; indeed, in Passerine birds, it is pos- 

 sible that the change may never be accompanied by an 

 atrophied or other diseased state of the reproductive organs, 

 resulting in barrenness. A hen Pheasant in my father's 

 aviary, which had partially assumed male plumage, lost it 

 again in confinement, as did a domestic Fowl in his chicken- 

 yard, which was in three parts cock's plumage in August 

 * 'Norwich Nat. Tr.' iv. p. 391. 



