THE PHEASANT-MALAY FOWL. 171 



between the Pheasant and the Fowl are, for the most part, 

 absolutely sterile; that when they do breed, it is not with 

 each other, but with the stock of one of their progenitors; 

 and that the offspring of these either fail, or assimilate to 

 one or other original type. No half-bred family is perpe- 

 tuated, no new breed created by human or volucrine agency. 



Some believers in the improvement effected by Pheasants 

 in our Common Fowls put their trust entirely in the possibility 

 of the fact, not in any evidence of what has actually occurred. 

 " One man, who had some of the birds near a wood, indeed 

 assured me that the breed was easily reared, and that they 

 grew more and more like Pheasants every clutch ; but I no- 

 ticed he had Hens of other breeds going with his Pheasant- 

 mules or hybrids, male and female, and Tie was not sufficiently 

 intelligent to be fully depended on. Besides, though his Cock 

 and some of the Hens were undoubtedly (?) true hybrids, yet, 

 as he lived close by the wood-side, it is most probable that, as 

 in the former instance, the Cock Pheasant of the wood usurped 

 the attentions of the whole sisterhood, thus accounting for the 

 broods growing more like Pheasants every generation. The 

 most successful breeder of them admitted that, after many 

 trials (of paired hybrids), he had " never brought up but two 

 to be a'most Hens," and that then they took the (meghrims) 

 staggers and died." (Correspondent of the Agricultural Ga- 

 zette, July 1st, 1848. ) Such naturalists as these have clearly 

 got into a wood, and, are likely to ramble about therein so long a 

 time, that it is hopeless to endeavour to extricate them. 



Others say, a Consult some intelligent gamekeeper, and you 

 will alter your opinions." Well, we are anxious only for the 

 truth, and are ready to be convinced by any proved facts that 

 a gamekeeper can produce. Accordingly, we have consulted 

 M. Le Roi, gamekeeper to the King of France, not of the 

 French, before the first revolution, when game was indeed pre- 

 served, and country gentlemen, almost as much as kings, when 



