STRUCTURE, FOOD, AND HABITS. 21 



variations of plumage and size are much more frequent and 

 more marked than would occur in the case of birds in a 

 perfectly wild state. In some instances the size is very 

 greatly increased. Hen pheasants usually weigh from two 

 pounds to two pounds and a quarter, whilst .the usual weight 

 of cock pheasants is from about three pounds to three pounds 

 and a half. Yarrell, in his " History of British Birds," 

 mentions two unusually large; he says "The lighter bird 

 of the two just turned the scale against four and a half 

 pounds ; the other took the scale down at once. The 

 weights were accurately ascertained, in the presence of several 

 friends, to decide a wager of which I was myself the loser." 

 On November 12, 1897, a cock was shot at Pluckley, in Kent, 

 which weighed four and three-quarter pounds. One of five 

 pounds and half an ounce was sent me by Mr. Carr, of the 

 Strand ; this was a last year's bird of the common species. 

 And in 1859 one bird, of the enormous weight of five pounds 

 and three-quarters, was sent by Mr. Akroyd, of Boddington 

 Park, Nantwich, to Mr. Shaw, of Shrewsbury, for preserva- 

 tion. Mr. Akroyd further stated that (f the bird was picked 

 up with broken leg and wing forty -eight hours after the 

 covert was shot, so had probably lost weight to some extent." 

 In reply to the suggestion that it might possibly have been a 

 large hybrid between the pheasant and the domestic fowl, 

 Mr. Akroyd further stated "that the bird looked all ite 

 weight, and was as distinguished amongst its fellows as a 

 turkey would be amongst fowls ; yet it had no hybrid 

 appearance whatever " and Mr. Shaw stated that he 

 weighed it several times. Moreover, he said, " the bird, had 

 it been picked up when shot, would, I have little doubt, have 

 weighed six pounds, there being nothing in its craw but two 

 single grains of Indian corn ; and when the length of time it 

 remained wounded on the ground, with a broken thigh and 

 wing is taken into consideration, there can be little doubt of 

 the fact." But the largest on record was described in The Field, 

 vol. xlvi., p. 179, by the Rev. G. C. Green, who wrote : ( I have 



