STRUCTURE. FOOD. AND HABITS. 21 



v:iri;itions oi ])himagc ;md sizo are mucli more frequent and 

 m(.)re marked than would occur in the case of birds in a 

 perfectly wild state. In some instances the size is \'ery 

 greatly increased. Hen pheasants us\ially weigh from two 

 pounds to two pounds and a quarter, whilst the usual weight 

 of cock pheasants is from about three p(junds to three pounds 

 and a half. Yarrell, in his " History of British Birds/' 

 mentions two unusually large; he says " 'Phe lighter bird 

 of the two just turned the scale against four and a half 

 pounds; the other took the scale down at once. The 

 weights were accui'ately ascertained, in the presence of several 

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

 On November 12, 1897, a cock was shot at l-*luckley, in Kent, 

 which weighed foui- and three-quarter ])ounds. r)ne C)f five 

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

 Strand ; this was a last year's bird of the connnon 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 Shri'wsbury, 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 sliot^ so ha.d proba])ly lost weight to some extent." 

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

 largo hybrid between the pheasant and the domestic fowl, 

 Mr. Akroyd further stated "that the bird looked all itr 

 weight, and wa.s as distinguished amongst its fellows as a 

 turkey would be amongst fowls ; yet it had no liybrid 

 appeai-ance 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 litMe doubt, have 

 weighed sis pounds, there being nothing in its craw l)ut 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, thei-e can be little doubt of 

 the fact." But. the largest on record was described in Tlir FiehJ, 

 vol. xlvi., p. 1 7t», by the Kev. (I. C. Green, who wrote : " I have 



