96 The Natural History of British Game Birds 
cause death, but its presence, at any rate, cannot but be most harmful and most dangerous 
to birds at any age, and especially to chicks. Thus every possible means should be tried to 
eliminate this pest from the breeding ground." 
The points raised by Mr. Pycraft are of great importance to game-rearers ; but 
there is no one to undertake the investigations, unless some disinterested individual 
can be found who is willing to give years of work for no pay and little thanks. 
Disease of the ovary is fairly common amongst Pheasants, and is due to various 
causes which have not yet been fully established ; but the results are of interest, as the 
hen Pheasant invariably assumes the plumage of the male in some degree. Complete 
destruction or injury by shot will have similar results. Mr. Tegetmeier, who has 
studied Pheasants closely, goes so far as to say : " In some cases it (the assumption 
of the male plumage) is absolutely entire." This is quite an incorrect statement. I 
know of no example whose plumage can be said to be quite the same as that of a 
male, nor can I believe that Mr. Tegetmeier has ever seen one. 1 The most " advanced " 
females in this respect are always less strongly barred and looped on the breast and 
flanks, and the rump and back are never, so far as I know, wholly free from hen 
feathers. The green crown of the head, too, is usually intermixed with sandy and black 
feathers, and the scarlet papillar patch round the eye is almost invariably absent. 2 In 
the most complete public and private collections of these islands I have not come 
across a single specimen of a hen assuming male plumage that was quite like a cock, 
nor one in this abnormal plumage which had other than rudimentary spurs. 
The phenomenon may be caused by loss as well as by disease of the ovary — in fact, 
any injury to this part will cause the bird to change in accordance with the proportion 
of the damage. We see hens with a russet tint pervading the breast. Those more 
advanced will often show very red feathers on the flanks often of composite form and 
colours between the two sexes ; others will exhibit black and purple about the upper 
neck, and so on till we find an extreme example in such an advanced state of cock's 
plumage as I have already indicated. Many will have very fairly complete white rings 
round the necks, and even grow longer tails than usually seen amongst hen birds. 
These abnormal females are invariably barren, 3 and generally more than one year 
old. There is a popular idea amongst sportsmen and gamekeepers that they are always 
old birds, but this is not the case, and I could give many instances to show that first- 
year birds often assume the phenomenon on acquiring their first adult plumage, some 
of them quite as completely as old hens ever do. 
I have dissected five or six of these barren hens, and have found that in two cases 
the ovary was dried up, small, flat, and black ; in other cases it was flaccid and full of 
mucus, and in another the ovary had disappeared and in its place two No. 6 shot 
dropped out. I have no medical knowledge to give an opinion on any disease that 
may affect the birds apart from injury by shot. 
1 A photograph of what is claimed to be a female completely assuming the plumage of the male is given in the Field, August 7, 
1909, but I agree with the editorial remark that the specimen in question is probably a spurless cock. 
- A female with half-cock plumage and a perfect scarlet papillar patch round her eye was shot by Mr. J. A. Jones at 
Charlwood Park, Surrey, October r8, 1887. Mr. Jones sends me a sketch of the bird. The sex was ascertained by Rowland 
Ward. There were no dots of purple feathers round her eye. 
3 With the exception of young hens with a russet tint and spurred females. Both of these frequently lay fertile eggs. 
