BIRDS. 327 



[Ifc 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. A.] l 



1 Dr. Latham observes, that " pea-hens, after they have done laying, 

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

 of the male -feathered pea-hen now to be seen in the Leverian Museum ; 

 and M. Salerne remarks, that "the hen pheasant, when she has done 

 laying and sitting, will get the plumage of the male." May not this 

 hybrid pheasant (as Mr. White calls it) be a bird of this kind ? that 

 is, an old hen pheasant which had just begun to assume the plumage of 

 the cock. MARKWICK. 



Concerning the hybrid pheasant, John Hunter, in the " Philosophical 

 Transactions," Art. xxx. 1760, says, " The subject of the account is a 

 hen pheasant with the feathers of the cock. The author concludes, 

 that it is most probable that all those hen pheasants, which are found 

 wild, and have the feathers of the cock, were formerly perfect hens, but 

 that now they are changed with age, and perhaps by certain constitutional 

 circumstances." We may add that the assumption of male plumage by 

 the hen is not confined to the pheasant. 



The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, referring to the identical specimen 

 described by Gilbert White, says: *' I saw this curious bird stuffed, in 

 the collection of the Earl of Egremont at Pet worth, in the year 1804, 

 and I have not the slightest hesitation in pronouncing that it was a 

 mule between the black cock and the common pheasant. I was in- 

 formed at the time by Lord Egremont that it was Mr. White's bird, 

 and I examined it with the most minute attention, compared it with the 

 description in the * Naturalist's Calendar,' and wrote at the moment 

 marginal memoranda on my copy of that book. In Mr. White's descrip- 

 tion of the bird, where he says that the back, wing-feathers, and tail, 

 were somewhat like the upper parts of a hen partridge, I scratched out, 

 at the time, the words ' somewhat likej and wrote in the margin ' much 

 browner than,' and with that alteration I believe Mr. White's descrip- 

 tion to be quite correct ; but I noted down that the plate was exceed- 

 ingly ill coloured, which indeed may be perceived by comparing it with 

 the description. I did not then, nor do I now, entertain the slightest 

 doubt of its being a mule between the black game and the pheasant. I 

 understand that some doubt exists at present whether it was Mr. 

 White's identical specimen, though I am quite positive from my notes 

 that it was at the time (now above thirty years ago) stated to me to 

 have been so ; and I am persuaded that it was his : but if there was 

 any misunderstanding on that point, and it could have been a second 

 specimen killed in the same line of country, there is not the slightest 

 doubt that it was of like origin and appearance, for I had no excep- 



