196 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



boscas) was killed on the Avon. I saw it very soon after it was shot, 

 and its size, together with the peculiarity of its plumage, at once 

 attracted attention. On referring to ' Yarrell,' I found an almost 

 identical specimen described asa " female having assumed, to a con- 

 siderable extent, the plumage of the drake, even to the curled feathers 

 of the tail." In the specimen of which I write the plumage partakes 

 of both sexes, the male perhaps most conspicuously ; but the measure- 

 ment and weight were that of an undoubted old female in not very 

 prime condition, if I may judge from the tough manner in which the 

 skin was attached to the flesh. I may describe it as follows : — Crown 

 and back of neck glossy green ; cheeks and throat pale brown, dappled 

 with darker brown ; white ring almost complete ; breast chesnut- 

 brown, with dark — almost black — spots and streaks ; back and sides 

 difficult to describe, so mixed are the colours with the black and tawny 

 of the female, and the grey mottled pencilling of the male ; under 

 parts lighter ; legs, feet, and beak female, the webs of the feet being 

 darker than the legs or toes ; the beak orange-brown on sides and tip, 

 with broad central dark greenish black mark, and black nail. The 

 tail both below and above is male — even to the four velvet black curls 

 — but the outermost lancet-shaped feathers, which in the ordinary 

 male are white with grey centres, are in this bird, white with darkrn 

 brown shafts and markings. Several people who saw the bird pro- 

 nounced it hermaphrodite, but on dissection the sexual organs were 

 found to be altogether female, much diseased and shrunken, and of a 

 very dark colour, An equally conclusive proof of the gender was in 

 the size and form of the bony labyrinth at the end of the windpipe. 

 It has been suggested that it is a male in the annual moulting change 

 of plumage, but if its anatomy had not proved it otherwise, the time 

 of year would have been against such a conclusion. 



Whilst on this subject, I may mention, that a few years ago a 

 brother-in-law of mine had a Bantam hen which laid for two seasons, 

 then ceased laying, and assumed almost the complete plumage of the 

 cock ; and I have on several occasions seen Pheasants in a like con- 

 dition. — G. B. Cobbin (Bingwood). 



Note on the Pairing of Moor-hens. — In case it may be of any 

 interest to naturalists, and also to put on record a fact, in the nature 

 of which there lies, as I believe, a deep significance — and that in more 

 ways than one — I send the following note on the pairing (£. e. copula- 

 tion) of the Common Moor-hen, as witnessed by me, and taken down 

 then and there. It is as follows : — 



" April 23rd, 1902. — Have just seen the pairing of Moor-hens. The 



