Birds. 7711 



mage of ibe male |)beasant, which, as far ns I know, has never yel been described by 

 naturalists. This change is the converse of the former. In these cases the cock bird 

 partially acquires the plumage of the hen. In a very peculiar example now before 

 ine, which was shot here some twelve or fourteen years ago, the scapular feaibers, the 

 wing coTerts and the whole wing, the tail coverts and the tail iiseif, precisely resemble 

 the female, aud exhibit none of those brilliant colours aud distinctive markings with 

 which we are all familiar in the matured plumage of the cock pheasant. The pliiuiage 

 also of the belly is pale, and flushed with gray feathers. The bird, however, was 

 killed at the end of the winter, when the plumage is in the highest order. It was 

 quite alone, and at a distance from any of the coverts, as if it had been banished from 

 society. Singular to relate, its very spurs partake of the character of the female, 

 resembling rather those of an old domestic hen than the true atiributes of the cock 

 pheasant. It is a bird of great size, with a large allowance of the bare red skin round 

 the eves, a distinction which in no case is ever observed in the female, even where, in 

 all other respects, her plumage has become that of the male. The description given 

 of this individual specimen may be received as common to all these "androgynous " 

 mutations, of which a great number have presented themselves to my notice in turning 

 out the bags of the present season, in which scarcely any young birds escaped the dis- 

 astrous storms of cold rain during the last summer. Every one of the more recent 

 specimens wye evidently birds of great age, and, unlike the example described, they 

 all possessed very long and sharp spurs. Several gradations of plumage were observed, 

 some partaking more, others less, of the female character.— i2((/A/ Hon. Lord Ravens- 

 worth in ' Transactions of the Ti/iuside Naturalists' Field Club,' vol. v. part 1, p. 38. 



The Chinese Bustard, 4-c. — There is a Chinese bustard well known lo sportsmen 

 from Amv)y and also to the northuard, but which has not yet been systematically 

 described, so far as I can learn. The following notice of it is from the ' Bengal 

 Sporting Magazine:' — "A species of bustard, somewhat like the common mottled 

 English turkey, only smaller. These birds are generally found singly, at least during 

 the time we were there (November and the winter mouths being the season in which 

 we beat for them) : they are exceedingly shy and difficult of approach, and are usually 

 found in the long grass and fir-clumps ; they seem to rise with difficulty, running a 

 considerable distance preparatory to their taking wing, during which time they call 

 and cackle, which seems extraordinary, as they are generally found as odd birds." 

 Mr. Swinhoe is well aware of the existence of this hustard, but hitherto has been 

 unable to procure a specimen, on account of the estimation in which it is held for the 

 table. For the same reason, comparatively few skins of bustards are preser»ed any- 

 where, especially of the larger species; and so it happened that the great bustard of 

 Australia, though met with even by Cook, and repeatedly mentioned by Flinders and 

 other early navigators, remained unknown to European naturalists until Mr. Gould's 

 visit to that country ! Captain Cook, it may not be remembered, on his first voyage, 

 proceeded northward from Botany Bay, landed a second time on the continent of 

 Australia, a little to the south of the Tropic of Capricorn, and ihere he shot " a kind 

 of bustard weighing 17 fbs.," and named the landing-place Bustard Bay ! From a 

 notice published in the 'Journal of the Royal Geographical Society' for 1858 (vol. 

 xxviii. p. 148), it appears that, " Of birds, the black and the white cockatoos, 

 bronze-winged pigeons of various kiuds, and the bustard (or ' wild turkey ' of the 

 colonists), were all found in the valley of the Victoria, but they were all much smaller 

 than their kiudied of the soiiih." Probably, therefore, distinct species, according lo 



