ON BIRDS. 



along, just before the dog's nose, till she had drawn 

 him to a considerable distance, when she took wing 

 and flew still farther off, but not out of the field : on 

 this the dog returned to me, near which place the 

 young ones lay concealed in the grass, which the old 

 bird no sooner perceived, than she flew back again 

 to us, settled just before the dog's nose again, and, 

 by rolling and tumbling about, drew off his attention 

 from her young, and thus preserved her brood a se- 

 cond time. I have also seen, when a kite has been 

 hovering over a covey of young partridges, the old 

 birds fly up at the bird of prey, screaming and fight- 

 ing with all their might, to preserve their brood. 



MARKWICK. 



A HYBRID PHEASANT. Lord Stawell sent me, from 

 the great lodge in the Holt, a curious bird for my 

 inspection. It was found by the spaniels of one of 

 his keepers in a coppice, and shot on the wing. The 

 shape, air, and habit of the bird, and the scarlet ring 

 round the eyes, agreed well with the appearance of a 

 cock pheasant; but then the head and neck, and 

 breast and belly, were of a glossy black : and though 

 it weighed three pounds three ounces and a half*, 

 the weight of a large full-grown cock pheasant, yet 

 there was no sign of any spurs on the legs, as is usual 

 with all grown cock pheasants, who have long ones. 

 The legs and feet were naked of feathers, and there- 

 fore it could be nothing of the grouse kind. In the 

 tail were no long, bending feathers, such as cock 

 pheasants usually have, and are characteristic of the 

 sex. The tail was much shorter than the tail of a hen 

 pheasant, and blunt and square at the end. The back, 

 wing-feathers, and tail were all of a pale russet, curi- 

 ously streaked, somewhat like the upper parts of a 



* Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces. 



