THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 783.— September, 1906. 



ON THE HYBRIDS WHICH HAVE OCCURRED IN 

 GREAT BRITAIN BETWEEN BLACK-GAME AND 

 PHEASANT. 



By the Rev. Francis C. R. Jourdain, M.A., M.B.O.U. 



(Plate IV.) 



As a good -deal of misconception seems to exist as to the 

 rarity or the reverse of this cross in Great Britain, and as it is 

 undoubtedly of exceedingly rare occurrence on the Continent, it 

 has been thought advisable to bring the list of recorded instances 

 up to date for the convenience of future reference. Hitherto only 

 two lists of such occurrences have been published, of which the 

 first is that in the first edition of Yarrell's well-known work on 

 'British Birds,' vol. ii. p. 307, where eleven instances are definitely 

 recorded. This list is somewhat curtailed in the fourth edition 

 (rewritten by Mr. Howard Saunders), where only eight occur- 

 rences are mentioned. The subject is, however, more fully 

 treated by M. Andre Suchetet in his work, ' Des Hybrides a 

 l'Etat Sauvage,' published at Lille in 1896 (pp. 87-89). He 

 refers to twenty-six British specimens of this cross, but three of 

 these at any rate were never seen by any competent observer 

 nor preserved, although in all probability they were correctly 

 identified. Short articles on the subject have also appeared in 

 the pages of 'The Zoologist' and the 'Field,' but no serious 

 Zool 4th ser vol. X.. September, 1906. 2 c 



