Hen Pheasant with Spurs. 101 



marked, were exhibited by Dr. H. Hammond Smith at the 

 meeting of the Zoological Society, February 11, 1911. In these 

 last cases the sexual organs showed no deviation from the 

 normal. 



In one particular specimen of a hen pheasant assuming male 

 characteristics, shot in 1922 by Mr. L. H. St. Quentin, the 

 pecuharity lay in the fact that while the plumage was almost 

 entirely that of an ordinary hen, except that the feathers on the 

 breast were of a slightly increased tawny shade, the bird had 

 well-developed spurs on both legs. The bird was evidently 

 an old one, in very good condition, weighing 2| lb. ; both 

 feet showed signs of previous injury, probably from a shot 

 wound, the toes of the right foot being deformed, while the 

 hallux of the left foot was missing. Upon internal examination 

 the ovary was found to be completely atrophied, being repre- 

 sented by merely a small mass of black pigment the size of a 

 pea. This case is very curious, as although the ovary was in a 

 state of complete atrophy, the only external, well-marked 

 sign of any male characteristic was the development of the 

 spurs, and but for the presence of the spurs the bird might 

 have escaped notice. 



A correspondent writing to me from Argyllshire forwarded 

 the body of a young pheasant, in which the skin was distended 

 to an enormous extent with air. The circumference of the 

 neck immediately behind the head was 5in., at the base of the 

 neck 7in., and round the body lOin. No other evidence of 

 disease was perceptible on post-mortem examination. The 

 bird, an early hatched one, was in very good plumage, having 

 already moulted two of the primary wing feathers. My 

 correspondent stated that his keeper found several birds in the 

 same condition. The bird, when alive, was in the same 

 bloated condition as when forwarded. This ease was evidently 

 one of traumatic emphysema, the result of accident and not of 

 disease. From some cause or other one of the air cavities which 

 pervade to a greater or less extent the bodies of all birds, and 

 even extend into the bones, had become ruptured, and the air 



