PHEASANT. 



a white pheasant after it was picked) from that of other phea- 

 sants, and white, like that of the fowl, which may also change the 

 appearance of the flesh. The whiteness of the skin will be owing 

 to the colour of the feathers, which will probably have that effect 

 on the skin. We see this in a pig ; when scalded, and the hair 

 taken off, the skin is either white, or stained with black, accord- 

 ing to the colour of the hair. 



" Secondly. It is well known, that other birds, besides phea- 

 sants, are white, notwithstanding the colour of their kind is quite 

 different, and yet that these can be no mule birds is obvious. 

 Every one has heard of white varieties of one species or other of 

 British birds p and in Mr. Bullock's museum, in Piccadilly, there 

 is a white jay, a white cuckoo, a white blackbird, thrush, and 

 lark. But neither the male nor female parent of these birds could 

 have been white, since among British small birds there is not one 

 class or kind of that colour. And mule birds partake of the colour 

 of both parents, as in the instance of the young of the goldfinch 

 and canary. It is, therefore, clear, that the white varieties, just 

 mentioned, cannot be mule birds ; and, on the other side, if they 

 may be produced white without being mule birds, why may not 

 pheasants ? 



" Thirdly. If white pheasants were mule birds between the 

 fowl and the pheasant, how does it happen that the mule breed 

 between these birds is always white in all parts of the country? 

 The writer of these remarks has seen two in a nide, and has 

 heard of many other white pheasants. But he never saw or heard 

 of any other variety of the common * pheasant than the pied, or 

 white pheasant. And yet there are fowls of several colours besides 



* Under the description of common pheasant, the writer here 

 includes, for the sake of perspicuity, the ring-necked pheasant, 

 though properly a variety of the common class, but he excludes, 

 of course, all foreign pheasants. Neither is he here speaking of 

 the mule pheasant, so called, which has the plumage of both cock 

 and hen pheasant, and the cause of which phenomenon sportsmen 

 cannot very well determine. 



