322 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



attempt has been made of late years to estimate the numbers of 

 these hybrids which have occurred in Great Britain. As will be 

 seen from the following list, there is no doubt that at least fifty 

 occurrences are satisfactorily authenticated, while there is some 

 evidence with regard to several others. 



The remarkable fact, however, remains that, though both 

 Black-game and Pheasants are widely distributed on the Conti- 

 nent, no instance of the occurrence of this hybrid was known 

 there until November, 1884, when a hen was shot by a gardener 

 in the park of the Castle of Jeltech, in Silesia. This bird is in 

 the collection of Count Saurma. A second specimen was obtained 

 near Zelc, in Bohemia, by Count Harrach, and presented by him 

 to the Royal Museum. This bird (a male), presumed to be the 

 produce of a cock Pheasant and Greyhen, is figured by G. Mutzel 

 in Dr. A. B. Meyer's fine folio work, ' Unser Auer-, Backel- und 

 Birkwild und seine Abarten,' published in Vienna in 1887 

 (taf. xvii. p. 93). Since then two other occurrences in Bavaria 

 have been recorded by Dr. C. Parrot (' Verhandl. der Ornith. 

 Gesellsch. in Bayern,' v. 1904, p. 14). One (a male) was ob- 

 tained on Oct. 4th in the forest of Kaufbeuern, and the other has 

 for many years been preserved in the Royal Zoological Museum 

 in Miinieh. With the exception of these four instances, this 

 hybrid is almost unknown on the Continent, although, as will be 

 seen from the following list, not uncommon in Great Britain. 

 It is, of course, unknown in Ireland, the statement to the contrary 

 effect by the late Rev. H. A. Macpherson (" The Pheasant," ' Fur 

 and Feather Series,' p. 57) being obviously due to a slip of the pen. 



1. — The first recorded instance is that mentioned by Gilbert 

 White in the " Observations on Birds," appended to some 

 editions of the ' Natural History of Selborne.' It was killed 

 towards the latter part of the eighteenth century at the Holt, 

 and was supposed by White to be a hybrid between the Pheasant 

 and Domestic Fowl. In some editions of the 'Nat. Hist, of Sel- 

 borne ' a folding coloured plate is given of this bird, and Brown's 

 edition (1835) contains a rude woodcut of it. In 1833 the Hon. 

 W. Herbert, who saw it in the Earl of Egremont's collection at 

 Petworth, assigned it to the Black-game and Pheasant cross. 



2. — The second was shot in January, 1829, at Whidey, near 

 Plymouth, by the Rev. — Morshead, and was recorded and de- 



