298 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



and in the lustre and variegated tints of the neck plumage 

 and wing-coverts. The beak, also, was somewhat elongated, 

 and on the left leg a well-formed spur, nearly 3-8ths of an 

 inch long, was developed. The comb was still that of the 

 hen. An examination of the visceral cavity showed the 

 following state of the ovarium and oviduct :— The oviduct — 

 the left — was pervious throughout, but contained several 

 loose, firm, ball-like concretions. The corresponding ova- 

 rium was shrivelled, and the ova which it contained were no 

 bigger than fine millet-seeds. Projecting into its upper part 

 was a small tumour about the size of a pea, which sprang 

 from the parts about the upper end of the left kidney and 

 supra-renal capsule. Lying loose in the abdominal cavity 

 were several small pea-like bodies, and others of a similar 

 character were attached by short pedicles, formed of delicate 

 connective tissue, to the outer coat of the gizzard, and one 

 was connected close to the upper orifice of the oviduct. Each 

 of these bodies was invested by a distinct and easily-separ- 

 able capsule, and was composed of a firm, yellow, yelk-like 

 substance, which, on microscopic examination, w T as seen to 

 consist of numerous small fat-like granules. 



Various naturalists have directed attention to specimens 

 of female gallinaceous birds, more especially hen pheasants, 

 assuming male plumage. John Hunter (Collected Works, 

 vol. iv. p. 44), describes four hen pheasants and a pea-hen 

 in which this change was observed. Dr Butter {Memoirs 

 of Wemerian Society, vol. iii.) not only gives a very elabo- 

 rate resume of the various cases recorded by previous writers 

 in which a change of plumage had been noted, but relates 

 some additional examples, and states his opinion, which the 

 specimen exhibited by the author confirmed, that the com- 

 mon domestic hen, at a certain period of life, regularly dis- 

 cards her dusky plumage for the more beautiful attire of the 

 cock. Mr Yarrell {Phil. Trans., 1827) examined seven hen 

 pheasants which possessed more or less strongly-marked 

 male plumage. Mr James Wilson (Ornithology, in Encyc. 

 Britannica) considers it to be a fact in the natural history of 

 common poultry, that all hen birds, which either by accident 

 or design are allowed to reach the age of sixteen years, 



