OF NATURE. 213 



shot on the wing. The shape, air, and 

 habit of the bird, and the scarlet ring 

 round the eyes, agreed well with the ap- 

 pearance of a cock pheasant : but then the 

 head and neck, and breast and belly were 

 of a glossy black : and though it weighed 

 three pounds three ounces and a half,* the 

 weight of a large full-grown cock pheasant, 

 yet there was no signs of any spurs on the 

 legs, as is usual with all grown cock phea- 

 sants, who have long ones. The legs and 

 feet were naked of feathers, and therefore 

 it could be nothing of the grous kind. In 

 the tail were no long bending feathers, 

 such as cock pheasants usually have, and 

 are characteristic of the sex. The tail was 

 much shorter than the tail of a hen phea- 

 sant, and blunt and square at the end. The 

 back, wing-feathers, and tail, were all of a 

 pale russet curiously streaked, somewhat 

 like the upper parts of a hen-partridge. I 

 returned it with my verdict, that it was 

 probably a spurious or hybrid hen bird, 



* Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten 

 ounces.* 



