184 MU. J. II. GUUNEV, JUN., ON xV FEMALE REESTxUlT 
liappen in Avild kinds is no more than is to be expected. iMy 
lather once saw a female lied-breasted Merganser, Avhicli Avas 
proved to be a female by dissection, assuming male plumage, a 
record of Avhich is given in the ‘Zoologist ’ for 1854 (p. 4252). In 
this bird there Avas no sign of disease or exhaustion of the ovarium. 
Eut the domestic Ducks in drake attire Avere barren, and the 
same is the case, I suppose, Avith the Pheasant {vide Montagu’s 
‘ Ornithological Dictionary ’), Capercaillie, and Black Grouse {vide 
Yarrell’s ‘British Birds,’ vol. iii. p. 103); though AAdiether the 
matter can be considered as altogether proved is doubtful. In the 
Pheasant it is not the old females only Avhich get the plumage 
of males, but sometimes young ones ; an instance of Avhich 
has occurred at Northrepps.* There used to be an old Pea-hen, 
near Thetford, Avhich had in part assumed the Peacock’s plumage. 
Tavo similar instances are mentioned by Latham, Avho says that one 
of them ceased to lay eggs Avhen it assumed the male plumage : 
but does not say if the other did (‘ Synopsis of Birds,’ 
vol. ii. p. 672, plate GO). J. Butter mentions another. A 
domestic foAvl, if it assumes male plumage, is considered 
Avorthless.t The rule appears to be, that Gallinaceous females 
become barren Avhen they assume male plumage, but Passerine 
birds do not. 
* J. Galley, the gamekeei^er at Northrepp.s, has more than once had a 
young hen Pheasant, not old enough to leave its foster-mother’s coop, begin 
to assume male plumage. 
t A Black Bantam in complete male plumage is figured in Sterland’s 
‘Birds of Sherwood Porest’ (p. 183). It is as complete an example of the 
metamorphosis which takes place as could well be, the transformation 
including spurs, comb, and wattle. Another equally good is figured in the 
‘Memoirs of the Wernerian Society’ (vol. iii. p. 188), in an article by 
J. Butter, — for a sight of Avhich I am indebted to Professor Newton. A hen 
Pheasant shot at Keswick, near Norwich, November 16th, 1868 — skinned and 
dissected by Mr. Shopland, taxidermist, Torquay — had assumed complete male 
dre.ss in everything except spurs ; the bare space round the eye ivas full size, and 
I have seldom seen a genuine cock Avith a longer tail ; but such instances as 
these are /nr less common than a partial change. This Pheasant, if it had not 
chanced to be dissected, would have passed unnoticed, as many another bird 
probably does. Indeed such a perfect transformation is almost unique, 
according to Mr. Yarrell’s valuable paper on the plumage of hen Pheasants 
(read before the Iloyal Society, May 10th, 1827). But hen Pheasants have 
sometimes assumed spurs, Avhich this bird had not. 
