292 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



A HYBRID PHEASANT. Lord Stawell sent me, from the 

 great lodge in the Holt, a curious bird for my inspection. It 

 was found by the spaniels of one of his keepers in a coppice, 

 and shot on the wing. The shape, air, and habit of the bird, 

 and the scarlet ring round the eyes, agreed well with the 

 appearance 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 sign of 

 any spurs on the legs, as is usual with all grown cock pheasants, 

 who have long ones. The legs and feet were naked of feathers, 

 and therefore it could be nothing of the grouse 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 pheasant, 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, bred between 

 a cock pheasant and some domestic fowl, f When I came to 

 talk with the keeper who brought it, he told me that some 

 pea-hens had been known last summer to haunt the coppices 

 and coverts where this mule was found. 



Mr Elmer, of Farnham, the famous game painter, was 

 employed to take an exact copy of this curious bird. 



N.B. It ought to be mentioned, that some good judges 

 have imagined this bird to have been a stray grouse or black- 

 cock ; it is, however, to be observed, that Mr W. remarks, 

 that its legs and feet were naked, whereas those of the grouse 

 are feathered to the toes. J 



farther off, but not out of the field : on this the dog returned to me, near 

 the place the young ones lay concealed in the grass, which the old bird 

 no sooner perceived, than she flew back again to us, settled just before the 

 dog's nose again, and, by rolling and tumbling about, drew off his attention 

 from her young, and thus preserved her brood a second time. I have also 

 seen, when a kite has been hovering over a covey of young partridges, the 

 old birds fly up at the bird of prey, screaming and fighting with all their 

 might, to preserve their brood. MARKWICK. 



* Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces. 



f This curious lusus natures is now in the collection of the Earl of 

 Egremont, at his seat at Petworth, and is allowed by naturalists to be a 

 mule betwixt the black-cock and common pheasant. ED. 



\ Mr Latham observes, that " pea-hens, after they have done laying, 

 sometimes assume the plumage or the male bird," and has given a figure 



