20 PHASIANID.E. 



remained dark in hue) were those of the female ; the whole of the 

 others, from base to point, including the shafts, were of the purest 

 white. 



Female pheasants seem more prone to assume the plumage of the 

 male in a wild state (if such it may be termed), than the females of 

 any other bird. Several, — in various states of change, from its com- 

 mencement to its completion, — which were shot in covers in the 

 north of Ireland, have come under my notice. Had the garb of the 

 weaker sex been retained, they might have escaped, as the sportsman 

 will not direct his deadly aim at a hen pheasant. Although these 

 birds approximated in every part of their plumage to that of the male, 

 exhibited the bare scarlet skin around the eye, and the tail one half 

 longer than it originally was, yet the colours were comparatively dull 

 in hue, wanting in the depth of tone, and in the gloss and splendour 

 of the veritable adult male ; they can, therefore, be detected at a 

 glance by the ornithologist. All such birds that have been dissected, 

 exhibited the generative organs diseased, and were incapable of pro- 

 ducing eggs. The few that I have myself had the opportunity of 

 examining bore out this view. In Yarrell's British Birds (vol. ii. 

 p. 319, 2nd edit.) the subject is alluded to and illustrated. 



In January 1849, I was informed by Peter Mackenzie, a most 

 intelligent gamekeeper at Ardimersy, Islay, that at a place in East 

 Lothian, where he had charge of the game some years ago, one or two 

 female pheasants were remarked every year to assume the plumage of the 

 male. He was in the habit of feeding the pheasants close to the house, 

 and observed that the females in male plumage annoyed the ordinary 

 hen-pheasants very much by driving them from the food. This was so 

 constantly practised, that he and the other keeper eventuallyshot all these 

 mock males. From what they witnessed of their disturbing the ordinary 

 hens, it was imagined that they would persecute them when they had 

 nests. A domestic hen belonging to the gamekeeper just named, after 

 being in his possession for two or three years (her age was unknown) 

 commenced changing to the plumage of the cock, which was soon fully 

 assumed, even as to tail, very large comb spurs, two inches long, &c. 

 Her body, too — he and the person who fed her agree in stating — 

 became apparently one half larger in size. 



The aversion of pheasants to take wing. "when near their home must 

 have been observed. I have been amused to see them carry this so far 



