PHEASANT. 215 



aves, and although there are several species naturally black, yet a 

 black variety always has been considered a peculiar prodigy, as we 

 may remember in that well known line in the mouth of every school- 

 boy. And among fowls there are none of a stronger colour than white 

 fowls and black, and white is stronger than black. Other fowls ap- 

 proach more to the colour of the pheasant (the brown fowl parti- 

 cularly to that of the hen pheasant), at least than these two colours 

 of white and black. Fowls of another colour than white will be in- 

 troduced again soon after, as a concurrent proof, that white phea- 

 sants are not a mule breed between the barn door cock and the hen 

 pheasant. 



" In proof of the effect of the influence of impression on the senses 

 from outward appearances, we might here allude to the human 

 species, and the impression which is often unfortunately made on 

 mothers, from objects of deformity. 



" In the above remarks, the writer has ventured an opinion on the 

 probable cause of white pheasants. He leaves it to others to judge 

 how far he is right or wrong. But however this may be, he will 

 now endeavour to show, that whatever may be the cause of this lusus 

 naturae in the pheasant, yet that there are the strongest grounds for 

 presuming, that the white pheasant is not a mule bird, between the 

 barn door cock and the hen pheasant. And, 



" First, it is conceived, that the white pheasant is not a mule bird, 

 between the barn door cock and the hen pheasant, from the circum- 

 stance, that it is one of the laws of nature, that the young of all 

 animals should be formed more after the male than the female parent, 

 have more of the shape, nature, and properties, of the former than 

 of the latter. This is well known to the breeders of cattle. If a 

 horned ram be put to an ewe without horns, the offspring will have 

 horns. On the contrary, let the ewe be horned, and the ram with- 

 out horns, and the lamb will be without horns; in both cases taking 

 after the ram. A mule was once pointed out to the writer of these 

 remarks as something extraordinary, from its being the foal of an ass 

 covered by a Portuguese horse, which happened to be brought over 

 to this country by an officer. It was thought an extraordinary pro- 

 duction, since the stallion refuses the she ass, and consequently all 

 our mules are produced from the ass and the mare, and not from 

 the horse and the she ass. But this mule, having a horse for its sire, 

 was much more like a horse than our common mules, which spring 

 from a more humble sire, and partake more of the nature of the ass 



