48 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT 



1825, and this was followed two years later by Yarrell's 

 essay, ' On the Change in the Plumage of some Hen 

 Pheasants.' Yarrell also figured the ovary of a 

 female pheasant in male plumage, to illustrate the 

 presence of internal disease. I have only dissected 

 one such bird myself, and in that particular case the 

 ovary was certainly disorganised ; but it must not be 

 supposed that all the female pheasants which assume 

 male dress are diseased or even barren birds. 

 Broderip warns us against rashly accepting such a 

 generalisation in the following words : ' Hen phea- 

 sants which have begun to put on the livery of the 

 male are not always incapable of producing eggs.' 



Thus Broderip says : ' Sir Philip Egerton has 

 informed us that a hen pheasant at Oulton Park, 

 Cheshire, which had nearly assumed the plumage of 

 a cock, laid a nest full of eggs, from which she was 

 driven by the curiosity of persons who came to gaze 

 at so strange a sight. She then laid another nest full 

 of eggs, sat upon them and hatched them ; but the 

 young all died soon after they were excluded.' ' 



I have never had an opportunity of comparing 

 any large series of these abnormal hen pheasants 

 together, but examples can be seen in many country 

 houses. The late Sir W. Jardine, Bart., possessed 



' English Cyclopedia, vol. iv. p. 284. 



