58 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PHEASANT 



A beautiful plate of a blackcock-pheasant hybrid 

 is to be found in Mr. J. G. Millais's ' Game Birds and 

 Sporting Sketches.' The bird is represented as standing 

 in an upright position, full of self-consciousness, and 

 is apparently ready to challenge a rival to the fray. 

 Mr. Millais remarks that this specimen, which belongs 

 to Mrs. Hunter, of Glen App, Ayrshire, is the hand- 

 somest hybrid of any game species that he has ever 

 seen. ' It is usually the case that in most of the 

 crosses with which the blackcock has anything to do 

 the young take very strongly after him, and are gene- 

 rally of a very plain and black appearance, without 

 possessing that noble bird's individual beauties, but 

 in this specimen the characteristics of both the parents 

 are perfectly distinct.' 



Mr. Montagu Brown supplies an interesting note 

 upon a male hybrid of this kind, which he received 

 from Major Knight, who had shot it in Shropshire. 

 On dissection it proved to be a male, and measured 

 twenty-five inches in total length. The plumage of 

 this hybrid resembled the pheasant as regards the tail 

 and wings, but the head, neck, and breast showed the 

 characters of the blackgame. The legs and toes agreed 

 with those of a pheasant in colour, shape, size, and 

 feathering. 



Thompson furnishes the following description of a 



