BIRDS. 437 



deemed a bird of passage by all the writers : yet from 

 its formation seems to be poorly qualified for migration ; 



respecting it surpassed those of later observers, he having seen the bird 

 when it was first shot. He, however, looked upon it as a mule with some 

 domestic fowl, such as the pea-hen: a parentage which no subsequent 

 naturalist has attributed to it ; those who have considered it as a hybrid 

 bird from the pheasant having joined with that bird, like Mr. Herbert, 

 the black game. And the glossy black of the fore and-under parts, and 

 the white spot on the shoulder, are marks so characteristic of the black 

 game as scarcely to leave a doubt that that bird had some share at least 

 in the production. We know well that hybrids between the pheasant 

 and the black game are at times produced, and two such have been exhi- 

 bited to the Zoological Society on different occasions, and from different 

 parts of the country; one of them having been killed in Cornwall, and 

 the other in Leicestershire. The latter was described by Mr. Eyton, in 

 whose collection the specimen is preserved ; and as his description enters 

 into more particulars of this curious mule than any that has yet been 

 published, I extract it from the Proceedings of the Society. 



" For some years past a single gray hen has been observed in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Merrington covers, belonging to Robert A. Slaney, Esq. 

 but she was never observed to be accompanied by a black cock, or any 

 other of her species. In November last a bird was shot on the manor ad- 

 joining Merrington, belonging to J. A. Lloyd, Esq. resembling the black 

 game in some particulars, and the pheasant in others. In December ano- 

 ther bird was shot in the Merrington covers, resembling the former, but 

 smaller : it is now in my collection, beautifully preserved by Mr. Shaw of 

 Shrewsbury. It is a female, and may be thus shortly described : 



" Tarsi half-feathered, without spurs, of the same colour as in the phea- 

 sant. Bill resembling that of the pheasant, both in colour and shape. 

 Irides hazel. Crown and throat mottled black and brown. Neck glossy 

 black, with a tinge of brown. Breast of nearly the same colour as that 

 of the cock pheasant, but more mottled with black. Tail of the same 

 colour as in the gray hen ; middle tail feathers longest ; under tail coverts 

 light brown. 



" The plumage of this bird is very curious ; as some parts of it resemble 

 either sex of both black game and pheasant. 



" I had an opportunity of examining the body after it was taken from 

 the skin, and of comparing it with the black game and the pheasant, and 

 the following are some remarks which I made on its anatomy: 



" Left oviduct very imperfect; the ovaries very small ; the eggs scarcely 

 perceptible, and very few in number. 



" The sternum approaches nearer to that of the black grous than of the 

 pheasant; but the bone is not so massive, the anterior edge of the keel is 

 more scolloped, and the bone between the posterior scollops is not so 

 broad as in the black game. The os furcatorium is that of the pheasant, 

 being more arched than in the black game, and having the flat process at 

 the extremity next the sternum broader. The pelvis is exactly inter- 

 mediate between the two, having more solidity, and being both* broader 



