FREAKS AND ODDITIES 59 



male hybrid, which was shot in Wigtonshire in 1835 : 

 ' In colour the hybrid has head, neck, breast, and belly 

 black ; each feather, when viewed in the light, ter- 

 minating in a band of rich claret colour tinged with 

 gold, which decreases in breadth downwards, until at 

 the lower part of the belly it disappears. On laying 

 back the breast feathers, the inner ones exhibit, about 

 an inch or less from the tip, a somewhat semicircular 

 band of a cream colour ; the inner feathers at [the] 

 upper part of the back, similarly examined, show the 

 cream-coloured marking of the pheasant, the remain- 

 der of the feather being black, except the termination, 

 which is of a claret colour. Upper part of back, 

 wings, and tail, not resembling either sex of black- 

 grouse or pheasant, but having a soft blending of grey, 

 brownish-yellow, and black, beautifully undulated ; 

 quills differing only from the black-cock's in the shafts 

 being blackish-brown. Tail feathers obscurely undu- 

 lated with black and brownish-yellow, and transversely 

 barred with black, the bars on the outer feathers 

 occupying as much space as the mottled plumage, 

 their tips black for an inch and a half ; this colour 

 gradually lessens towards the central feathers, the five 

 longest being mottled at their extremities. These 

 present a singular reverse to the longest tail feathers 

 of the pheasant, in which the bars become broader as 



