NOTES AND QVEBIES. 328 



poor condition. I am glad to say I have not heard of a specimen having 

 been wilfully killed, and I suppose it is too much to hope that the birds 

 recorded were of Hampshire origin. A writer in the ' Field ' of January 

 last recorded the nesting of the species two consecutive years in South 

 Hants, the exact localities being wisely withheld for obvious reasons. — 

 G. B. Corbin (Ringwood, Hants). 



Spoonbill at Great Yarmouth. — On June 7th a magnificent Spoonbill 

 (Platalea leucorodia) was seen on Breydon, where I put it up. Black- 

 headed Gulls, out of curiosity, were keeping it company, and they followed 

 it to another resting place, not he them. I also saw two on the night of 

 June 9th (not including the same bird), in company with Black-backed 

 Gulls. Twelve were seen on June 4th for an hour or two on Breydon, and 

 afterwards observed at Waxham. — Arthur Patterson (Ibis House, Great 

 Yarmouth). 



Hybrid Pheasant. — It is well known how readily the various species of 

 Pheasants interbreed — sometimes even with the poultry of the farmyard — 

 and this to such an extent that what is said to be the original stock, with 

 dark uniform steel-blue neck and dark legs, is now seldom met with where 

 extensive rearing is practised. Thus the size and consequent weight have 

 in many instances deteriorated, and the plumage has become so varied that 

 in some cases it is almost impossible to say to what particular species or 

 "strain" in this most beautiful plumaged class of birds some individual 

 specimens belong. I am alluding to birds in a semi-wild state, and not to 

 those kept in confinement, for in the latter case, if I may judge from a series 

 of skins I saw some time since, the variation in plumage is very great, 

 especially with the Amherst and Golden Pheasant. I have heard it 

 asserted — whether rightly or wrongly, I cannot say — that the Common 

 Pheasant (meaning, I suppose, the hybridized bird so commonly reared) 

 seldom interbreeds with the " Golden." In the spring of 1898 a game- 

 keeper informed me that in one of his covers he had seen a common cock 

 Pheasant consorting with a hen " Golden," and subsequently he found her 

 nest, with, I believe, seven eggs in it, five of which were duly hatched. 

 During the shooting season of 1898-9 one of these birds was killed — a 

 cock — of such a peculiar colour that the proprietor of the shooting had it 

 preserved and mounted. It was of a uniform reddish cinnamon, except the 

 neck, which was of a bronze-copper shot with shades of purple. The 

 development of its plumage was, however, normal, except the tail, which 

 was longer than in the ordinary bird. Last season two others of the brood 

 were killed, and, being a year older, one of them at least was more fully 

 developed ; but, although a second season's bird, it had no indication of 

 spurs. Its tail was of the same form, but much longer than in the ordinary 



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