Birds. 7545 



doubts by killing two of tbera, which were dispatched to a small market town in the 

 district, from which Plymouth is sup|)lied with game, !kc. A gentleman at the latter 

 place purchased in 1859 a specimen of this variety, and T look upon it as probable that 

 it was one of the two birds referred to. In the previous year Captain Morshead, of 

 Sloke, near Plymouth, obtained a specimen frona the same poulterer. This bird I have 

 seen, and it closely resembles in plumage my two birds. Here then we have proofs 

 that all the birds of a certain covey similarly diverged in marking from the ordinary 

 plumage of the common partridge, and that moulting did not destroy in the slightest 

 degree this variation. Oue is almost tempted to dismiss the idea of " variety," and 

 introduce that of " bybridity " as an explanation of the cause of this peculiar condition 

 of plumage, but I am at a loss on whom to fix the parentage in connection with the 

 common partridge. We have no redlegged partridges in this part of the county, 

 otherwise a relationship might be detected in the black feathers around the bill and in 

 the regions of the eye, combined with the absence of tlie horse-shoe marking on the 

 lower breast. But even then there would be nothing in the form to lead to such a sup- 

 position, the variety being decidedly in shape a common partridge. I have premised 

 that the specimens here recorded are identical with the Edinburgh bird, but I should 

 remark that in addition to the black wavy markings on the gray ground of the breast 

 there are light-coloured chestnut bands, one or more on each feather, occupying the whole 

 space between the wavy markings, which would otherwise have been gray. My friend, 

 Mr. J. Gatcombe, in describing in the ' Field ' the specimens preserved at Plymouth, 

 speaks of them as appearing to have been exposed to a red wash, a description which 

 admirably applies to at least one of my specimens. A few of the flank feathers have the 

 dark chestnut markings of the common bird. I should add that the man who detected 

 the covey on the ground, and who killed two of them, said that the black around the bill 

 was of a dark green when fresh. Are any of the correspondents of the ' Zoologist' 

 conversant with this variety, which perhaps may not be uncommon in some localities? 

 — W. S. Hore ; Shebbear Vicarage, Devon, May 2, 1861. 



Hybrid between the Blackcock and Common Pheasant.— kt the sale of the ornitho- 

 logical collection of the late Mr. Cornelius Tripe, of Devonport, I purchased a hybrid 

 between the blackcock and pheasant, which had been obtained in the market of that 

 town some ten or twelve years ago. It is a male in fine plumage, although in a slight 

 stale of moult about the neck. In 1839 I secured one of these hybrids, which had 

 been killed in Cornwall, and which is recorded in Yarrell's ' British Birds.' The figure 

 of Lord Howick's hybrid in the same work is a correct representation of this bird. In 

 size, shape, feathering of the tarsi, form of the tail and general appearance my two 

 birds agree, with the exception that the feathers of the neck in the recently purchased 

 bird are of a straw-coloured white, with two short blackish lines, one on each side, 

 running down from the darker feathers of the head. Some few of the feathers on the 

 lower part of the breast have also the markings of the pheasant, though of a white 

 colour. Yarrell mentions thirteen specimens of this hybrid, and I have no doubt that 

 several more are to be found in the many collections (large and small) scattered through- 

 out the country. Notices of them, I feel assured, would be acceptable to the pages of 

 the ' Zoologist,' as they are of interest not only to the ornithologist but also to the 

 sportsman, and it is in order to elicit communications of this description that I am 

 induced to send the present remarks. Many years since I saw a female hybrid of this 

 kind in a very good collection of birds made by the Rev. T. Johnes, of Bradstone 

 Rectory, near Tavistock ; it was much smaller than my specimens.— /rf. 



VOL. XIX. 2 K 



