COMMON PHEASANT. 317 



the Transactions of the Linnean Society, mention, that at 

 Campsey Ash, where the Pheasants are well fed with 

 potatoes, buckwheat, and barley, a cock Pheasant has 

 been killed which weighed four pounds and a half; and 

 some winters since, my friend Mr. Louis Jaquier, then of 

 the Clarendon, produced a brace of cock Pheasants which 

 weighed together above nine pounds. The lighter bird of 

 the two just turned the scale against four pounds and a 

 half; the other bird took the scale down at once. The 

 weights were accurately ascertained in the presence of 

 several friends to decide a wager, of which I was myself 

 the loser. 



One peculiarity of the Pheasant must not be passed over, 

 which is, its inclination to breed with other gallinaceous 

 birds, not of its own species. This tendency exists also in 

 a remarkable degree among the different species of Grouse, 

 as will be hereafter noticed, with examples. Edwards long 

 ago figured, plate 337, a bird which was considered to have 

 been produced between a Pheasant and a Turkey. Henry 

 Seymour, Esq., of Handford, Dorsetshire, discovered three 

 or four of these birds in the woods near his house, and 

 shot one in October 1759, which he sent to Mr. Edwards, 

 who figured and described it, as quoted. I have twice 

 been shown birds that were said to be the produce of 

 the Pheasant and the Guinea Fowl, and the evidence to be 

 derived from the plumage was in favour of the statement. 

 Of birds produced between the Pheasant and the Black 

 Grouse, several have occurred within the last few years ; 

 figures and particulars will be given under the head of 

 Black Grouse. Birds produced between the Pheasant and 

 Common Fowl are of frequent occurrence, and such a one 

 is usually called a Pero. The Zoological Society have pos- 

 sessed several, which were for a time kept together, but 



