WEIGHT OP PHEASANTS. 13 



Akroyd stated that " tlie 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 further 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. 0. 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 Gnaton, 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 

 afterwards, being at Gnaton, 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 large birds, it is usually found that 

 the extreme weight is owing to the fattening influence of the maize on which they 

 have been fed, some are even so distended with fat as to burst open on concussion 

 with the ground as they faU from the gun. 



COCK PHEASANT DISPLAYING ITS PLUMAGE. 



