MR J. P. SELBT*S NOTICE OF A OUBIOUS HYBRID. 231 



this near affinity is wanting : in fact, according to the views of the 

 first ornithologists of the day, the respective parents belong not only 

 to different genera, but to distinct groups of greater value or extent, the 

 one belonging to the family PavonidcB, Swainson, the other to the 

 TetraonidcB of the same author ; and we may farther remark, that the 

 habits of the two differ considerably from each other. This interesting 

 and remarkable hybrid was shot on the 2d of December, by Lord 

 Howick, at Chevington Wood, a large cover belonging to Earl Grey, 

 .two or three miles to the east of Felton. It proved a male, and 

 partakes of the characters of both parents in nearly an equal degree. 

 Its length, measuring from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, is 

 two feet one and a-half inch in breadth ; with wings extended, two feet 

 six and a-half inches. The tail, which is considerably rounded, is 

 upwards of eight inches in leigth. The bill is intermediate in size and 

 form between that of the black-cock and the pheasant. The upper 

 mandible blackish-horn colour, the under paler. It possesses the 

 naked papillous skin of the pheasant around the eye, but not to so 

 great an extent ; and the superciliary comb of the black-cock is fully 

 developed. The tarsi are about two and three-cjuarter inches in 

 length, feathered anteriorly like the black-cock for more than half 

 their length. The feet partake of the character of both parents. 

 The whole of the head and neck is of a deep purplish-black, with 

 a rich metallic gloss. The breast and lower parts black, with several 

 of the feathers upon the breast and sides shewing, upon being turned 

 up, the arched cross-bar of the cock pheasant ; thighs and legs yellowish- 

 white, barred with black. The mantle or upper back is of a purplish- 

 brown, the feathers partaking of the markings of the pheasant ; the 

 wing-coverts the same. The lower back is of a rich purplish-black. 

 The tail, which is rounded, has the basal part of the feathers marked 

 like those of the pheasant ; their tips, with the exception of the two 

 middle feathers, black for nearly two inches. It has no projecting 

 spur like the pheasant, but a scale considerably larger than the rest 

 on each leg, indicates the place where they project in that bird. 

 Chevington Wood is within a short distance of Acklington Park, where 

 the female hybrid of the same cross, presented to the Natural History 

 Society, Newcastle, by the Duke of Northumberland, was killed about 

 sixteen months ago. In all probability these two birds belonged to 

 the same hatching. Upon dissection, the lobes covering the nostrils 

 were observed to be not more than half the size of those of the 

 pheasant ; the processes at the root of the tongue larger than those of 

 the pheasant. The general form of the body thicker than that of the 

 pheasant ; the exterior pectoral muscles much darker in colour than 

 in the pheasant. Length of the crest or keel of breast-bone in the 

 hybrid fom* inches and three-fourths; that of a middle-sized cock 

 pheasant nearly four inches. Gizzard large ; proventriculus thick and 



