59 [Vol. xxix. 



He also showed the skins of two so-called Bohemian 

 Pheasants — one shot at Ratlinghope in Shropshire ; the 

 other killed at Eastbourne^ and hatched from a reputed 

 cross-bred Mongolian egg. The deficiency in pigmentation 

 was well marked in both cases. Mr. Steward, in ' The Field,' 

 27th February, 1897, ascribed this want of pigmentation to 

 some constitutional weakness in the bird. 



Dr. Hammond Smith also exhibited the skin of a bird 

 supposed to be a cross between a Pheasant and a Blackcock, 

 It was a young male bird shot on Halsanger Down, near 

 Barnstaple, twenty miles from Exmoor, by Mr. Murry 

 George, in October 1911. 



It was found in company with a covey of seven Black- 

 Game, two of which, a young Blackcock and a young Grey- 

 hen, were also shot, and appeared to have been in normal 

 plumage. The head and neck still retained the first plumage, 

 which was much like that of a young cock Pheasant ; inter- 

 spersed with this were a number of dark chestnut and black 

 feathers just beginning to make their appearance. The 

 general colour of the upperparts was grey-brown, vermicu- 

 lated and barred with black, most of the feathers of the 

 mantle, scapulars, and wing-coverts having black middles, 

 irregularly barred or marked with buff. The tail was rather 

 short and rounded, the feathers being sandy-brown, much 

 like the back in colour, but with distinct black cross-bars, 

 black tips, and the outer webs margined with buff. The rest 

 of the underparts were deep chestnut, with a considerable 

 amount of oily-green gloss, the basal part of the feathers, 

 except those of the chest, being coarsely and irregularly 

 barred or marked with buff and black ; the belly was mostly 

 black, but with numerous black and buff feathers of the 

 first plumage down the middle, much like those of a young 

 Pheasant. The long under tail-coverts chestnut, with blackish 

 bases. The thighs buff, mottled with blackish, the feathering 

 extending on to the front part of the upper half of the tarsus. 

 The toes, which were entirely Pheasant-like, were very long. 



