A Cha'pter on Fowls. 541 
British Birds, in which five individuals were produced. — Hort. 
Soc, 1835. 
Further, the common ring pheasant of England, is now ascer- 
tained to be a hybrid between the pheasaianus colchecus and p. 
torquator of China. This cross is very prolific, and is said to be 
spreadino- faster than the ordinary breed. — Onitho. Die. 
" It is well known," says a writer in an English Journal, " that 
the male pheasant frequently visits the hens in the poultry yards 
adjoining preserves, (or it may be vice versa,) and in my own 
limited experience I know instances in which very good varieties 
of constant layers have been obtained by this means. In the 
autumn of last year (1846,) I saw-^a large flock of poultry in a 
farm-yard close to a preserve of Lord Hatherton's, which was 
well stocked with pheasants, and the results of the cross between 
these birds and the domestic fowls were very obvious. The poul- 
try had originally been a mixed variety, bearing no resemblance 
whatever to the pheasant breed. In the cross to which I refer, 
the male birds generally show the greatest resemblance to the 
pheasants, and in one or two instances that I have noticed, the 
plumage was strictly similar to that of the cock pheasant." 
In further corroboration, that the pheasant will cross with the 
domestic fowl, we give the following from the Journal of Agri- 
culture, published in Scotland. " In the autumn of 1826, a wan- 
derer of the pheasant tribe made his appearance in a small val- 
ley of the Grampians, the first ot his family who had ventured so 
far north in that particular district. For some time he was only 
accidentally observed, and the actual presence of this rara avis 
was disputed by many; wintry wants, however, brought him more 
frequently into notice; and in due season, proofs still more un- 
equivocal became apparent. When the chicken broods came 
forth, and began to assume a shape and form, no small admiration 
was excited by certain stately long-tailed game looking birds, 
standing forth amongst them, and continuing to grow in size and 
beauty, until all doubts of the stranger's interference with the 
rights of chanticleer efFectuall}' vanished. These hybrids partook 
largely of the pheasant character; and as they are of goodly size 
and hardy constitution, a useful and agreeable variety for our 
poultry-yards may be secured in a very simple and economical 
manner." 
" In fine," says a writer in the American Journal of Science, 
" we are informed on the best authority, that many of the birds 
which compose the gallinaceous order, appear to be less diflficult to 
be brought to unite with strange species, than those of any other. 
From the great majority of the pheasants, mongrels may be thus 
produced. All the Iioccos, (crax,) will couple in a state of domes- 
tication; the pheasant will ally with the cock; the last with the 
