The Zoologist — September, 1871. 2769 



grand total of upwards of 10,000 seeds of weeds consumed at a single 

 meal. No other substances were found. Wishing to have the independent 

 testimony of a competent botanist to the determination of the seeds, 

 I forwarded samples to Mr. J. Britten, of the Kew Herbarium, who 

 unhesitatingly referred them to the above-named plants. To satisfy any of 

 my readers who may be sceptical as to the species and number of the seeds, 

 I have forwarded them to the ' Field' office, where, to use the phrase of the 

 old writers, they may be " inspected by the curious." — IF. B. Tecjetmeier, in 

 the ' Field' of July 15th. 



[I am very glad to find the subject of the food of the wood pigeon taken 

 up by so competent an investigator as Mr. Tegetmeier. It is greatly to be 

 regretted there should be so much need for the rebuke he administers to 

 writers on the subject : angry sentences, harsh expressions, random asser- 

 tions and strong opinions are unavailing ; what we require is careful 

 observation and equally careful record. — Edward Newman.] 



Bybrid between a Barn Fowl and a Common Pheasant. — A friend who 

 has very considerably augmented my collection of birds kindly presented 

 me to-day with a cross between a domestic fowl and a male of the common 

 pheasant. This bird at an early age forsook the busy dunghill for the 

 solitary copse, and the covered coop for the uncovered trees. It had a 

 wandering disposition, and was very destructive of young birds, particularly 

 of the young pheasants, which it pecked to death. That it was an object 

 of dread is shown by the fact that on its approach the blackbird signalled 

 " danger," just as if a cat or weasel wei'e on the ground. It is a bird of the 

 previous season, but the sexual organs are undeveloped ; perhaps its sterility 

 had something to do with its unsocial and destructive disposition. The 

 character of its plumage is that of a male pheasant ; weight three pounds 

 ten ounces ; length two feet seven inches ; length of tail twelve inches and 

 three-quarters, the middle feathers being the longest by two inches ; extent 

 three feet; wing from carpus ten inches and a half. Iris light bluish 

 black. Feathers on the crown and sides of the head white, irregularly 

 striped with bluish black, frontals dai'ker, those on the nape bluish black, 

 edged with white and having the shafts white for two-thirds of their length, 

 and tipped with glossy blue. Uj^per surface of the body brownish white, 

 barred as in the common pheasant, but with a blackish brown, the true 

 tint showing only on the tips of the rump-feathers. Tail black below, 

 barred above, as in the pheasant, but with white. Fore neck with the 

 feathers white at the base and on the shafts, tipped with glossy blue. 

 Lower surface of the body dark brownish, white mottled, and tipped with 

 reddish brown. Bare space at the eye light red, but with feathers sprouting 

 over its entire surface. The whole bird deep in the moult. Bill and legs more 

 robust than in the common pheasant ; lower mandible light horn-colour, 

 the upper darker, more particularly at the base ; nostril bluish black. Legs 



