338 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
ranging from pure white and speckled specimens, to innumer- 
able minor varieties, the latter being doubtless attributable 
to constant importation of nearly-allied species such as the 
Moneohan (P. mongoUcua) and Japanese (P. versicolor). 
"Black-necked" individuals (the true P. colchicus) m3.y 
be regarded as extinct since the introduction of the Chinese 
Ring-necked Pheasant (P. iorqwitus), and the so-called 
" Bohemian Pheasant " is but a pale lavender variety. 
Females assuming the plumage of the male are of fairly 
common occurrence, and often pass unnoticed. So long 
ago as 1842 John Shaw wrote to Sir William Jardine trom 
Drumlanrig : " We have abundance of hen Pheasants at 
this moment in our woods exhibiting the plumage of the 
cock " , 
A "cross between this species and a Black Grouse has 
already been noticed (see p. 325). and a fine hybrid cock 
between a Pheasant and a farm-yard fowl was obtained at 
Raehills early in 1888. Silver - Pheasants {Euploeamus 
nycthemerus) were kept at Capenoch in 1901, and bred 
readily with the common species ; but the produce were not 
fertile, and the same may be said of the Pheasant and 
Golden Pheasant [Chrysohfhus pictus) hybrid 
Pheasants' eggs vary in coloration from olive-brown to pale 
blue and " in size from 1-9 to 1-75 by 1-45 to 1-35 inch * , 
but I possess eggs 2-2 by 1-5, and 1-0 by 0-8 inch. The 
foUowing extract from the Ibis may be worth quotmg 
here- ''During the spring of 1903, when picking 
up Pheasants' eggs which had been laid in precario«s 
places, such as the sides of roadways or near human habita- 
tions, I happened to weigh some of t^em and was at once 
struck by the variation in their weight. Thinking that this 
variation might be caused by the length of time the eggs 
had been incubated, I had ten newly laid eggs from ten 
different hens marked, and weighed them every tourth 
day, with the following results. 
" I reckoned 27 grs. = 1 dr. 
» Col. Figs., Eggs of Brit. Birds, 1896, p. 275. 
