298 Proceedings of the Boyal 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 w^ere 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 
w^as 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^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 Wernerian 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 w^hich 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, 
