174 THE PHEASANT- MA LAY FOWL. 



sides to begin with. But, we may ask, how do they know 

 that they are really such ? If they were only told by some 

 man who lived by the wood-side, and reared them from one 

 of his Hens kept there, that they were half-bred Pheasants, 

 we must refuse to admit any such uncertain, hearsay evidence, 

 as unworthy to have any weight in solving what is one of the 

 most important problems (in its consequences) in Natural His- 

 tory. The Hen from which birds that can be allowed to be 

 half-bred Pheasants are obtained, must have been confined 

 for some time previously with a Cock Pheasant, and utterly 

 debarred from the slightest possibility of association with the 

 Domestic Cock. In short, the evidence ought to be as clear 

 and unmistakeable as would be required in a trial for murder, 

 or in a claim before the House of Lords to a succession to a 

 dukedom. When we have truly and actually got what we 

 are sure is a half-bred Pheasant, specimens of which, though 

 unfrequent, are by no means rare, it then remains to be seen 

 what becomes of them. * 



Mr. John Bailey favours me with one instance of their 

 probable destiny. " Hybrids between Fowls and Pheasants 

 are not at all uncommon, when such birds, tame-bred, are 

 kept together in a pen. For instance, a tame-bred Cock 

 Pheasant will breed with a game Hen, but I do not believe 

 the stories of wild Pheasants visiting the ordinary inhabitants 

 of farm-yards. I have had numbers of such miscalled Hy- 

 brids brought to me, to prove by ocular demonstration their 

 claim to unnatural origin ; but the first sight proved the re- 

 verse ; they were simply Spangled Fowls. 



"I have had many Hybrids. They are of all colours, 

 but, generally, the back and wings are chocolate -coloured ; 

 the breast, hackle, and tail, black, and the legs dark. In car- 

 riage they more resemble the Pheasant than the Fowl ; they 

 are tame, sheepish-looking birds, having neither comb nor gill, 

 and no distinctly-coloured circle round the eye. The tail- 



