72 PHEASANTS 



selection the 'sport' might be in time 

 made to some degree constant. 



The bird that looks like neither cock 

 nor hen, though resembling both, is a 

 common object of interest at a covert 

 shoot, and is usually — though quite 

 wrongly — considered to be a very old hen. 

 Age has nothing to do with the matter ; 

 the bird is only an example of the hard 

 and fast rule, that whenever the ovary is 

 damaged, by shot or otherwise, the hen 

 pheasant, becoming infertile, must always 

 begin to assume male plumage. The 

 change is never complete ; a scattering of 

 hen feathers usually remain, especially on 

 the gi'een crown of the head and along 

 the flanks, while the spurs of the male 

 are invariably absent, or so rudimentary 

 as scarcely to be noticed. Spurred 

 females are, it is true, not altogether 

 unknown ; but they have normal plumage, 

 and are fertile. 



Besides interbreeding with almost any 

 of the other pheasants, the ordinary 

 pheasant will at times hybridize with 



