STBUCTUBE, FOOD, AND SABIT8. 21 



friends, to decide a wager of which I was myself the loser." 

 On NoTember 12, 1897, a cock was shot at Pluckley, in Kent, 

 which, weighed four and a half pounds. One of five pounds 

 and half an ounce was sent me by Mr. Carr, of the Strand ; 

 this was a last year's bird of the common species. And 

 in 1859 one bird, of the enormous weight of five pounds and 

 three-quarters, was sent by Mr. Akroyd, of Boddington 

 Park, Nantwich, to Mr. Shaw, of Shrewsbury, for preserva- 

 tion. Mr. Akroyd further stated that " the bird was picked 

 up with broken leg and wing forty-eight hours after the 

 covert was shot, so had probably lost weight to some extent." 

 In reply to the suggestion that it might possibly have been a 

 large hybrid between the pheasant and the domestic fowl, 

 Mr. Akroyd farther stated "that the bird looked all its 

 weight, and was as distinguished amongst its fellows as a 

 turkey would be amongst fowls ; yet it had no hybrid 

 appearance whatever " ; and Mr. Shaw stated that he 

 weighed it several times. Moreover, he said, "the bird, had 

 it been picked up when shot, would, I have little doubt, have 

 weighed six pounds, there being nothing in its craw but two 

 single grains of Indian corn ; and when the length of time it 

 remained wounded on the ground, with a broken thigh and 

 wing, is taken into consideration, there can be little doubt of 

 the fact." But the largest on record was described in 

 vol. xlvi., p. 179, of The Field. G. C. G. writes : " I have 

 received the following from Mr. Kelly in consequence of a 

 discussion in The Field about the weight of a pheasant : 

 ' Some few years since, while Admiral Sir Houston Stewart 

 was residing at Ganton, he sent me a pheasant that weighed 

 61b. wanting loz. He was an old bird, and the most splendid 

 in form and plumage that I ever beheld. A few days after- 

 wards being at Ganton, I told Sir Houston that I had 

 weighed the bird, but I thought my weights must be 

 incorrect, and asked him whether he knew its weight. He 

 said, " You are quite right. I weighed it before I sent it to 

 you, and that is my weight." ' " In these cases of exceptionally 



