438 OBSERVATIONS ON 



for its wings are short, and placed so forward, and out 

 of the centre of gravity, that it flies in a very heavy and 



and longer than in the pheasant ; but resembling that of the pheasant in 

 having the two processes on each side of the caudal vertebrae, which serve 

 for the attachments of the levator muscles of the tail. 



" The subjoined Table shows some comparative measurements between 

 the hybrid bird in question, the cock pheasant, and the gray hen. 



It is worthy of especial remark that this mule, although a female, was 

 so much influenced by its pheasant parentage as to have the middle tail 

 feathers longer than the others, and produced to nearly twice the length 

 of those of the gray hen, its dam. In White's bird the tail was mucli 

 shorter than that of a hen pheasant, and was blunt and square at the end. 



The second opinion is that adverted to by Dr. Aikin as having been 

 advanced by some good judges, that the assumed hybrid pheasant is 

 merely a black cock: and Mr. Yarrell has more recently stated his be- 

 lief that it is a young black cock in which the first moult has been par- 

 tially completed. It is a very general law, although not free from many 

 exceptions, that in birds in which the adults of the two sexes differ mate- 

 rially in plumage, the young previously to the first moult exhibit no dif- 

 ference of outward character, but resemble, in their colours, the mother. 

 In the case of the black cock this rule obtains. The young male has at 

 first the plumage nearly agreeing with that of the gray hen ; it is chiefly 

 of a reddish brown mottled and barred with black. In the autumn of his 

 first year he moults, and then assumes the glossy violet black feathers 

 which afterwards entirely invest him. In parting with his mottled brown 

 feathers, and assuming those of the bright and uniform black, some weeks 

 are occupied; and a portion of the moult being completed before the re- 

 mainder is commenced, the bird is for a time in external appearance 

 partly a black cock and partly a gray hen or hen pheasant. Mr. Yarrell 

 believed that White's bird was a black cock, shot at this intermediate 

 period of its growth. 



Another friend has fully adopted the same view. He obtained, " near 

 the end of November, 1835, a young black cock undergoing its first moult. 

 Its length was twenty inches and a half; its breadth, thirty inches ; and 

 its weight, two pounds three ounces and three quarters. The head and 

 neck were iridescent black. A naked red spot above the eye. The 



