for exhibition and comparison. These had been bred beftWeen
the Pheasant and Common Fowl, the Common Pheasant
and the Silver Pheasant, and the Common Pheasant with the
Gold Pheasant. The Rev. Richard Lubbock, in his ‘Raima
of Norfolk,’ mentions that in the beginning of January,1845,
he was called into a bird-preserver’s shop to look at a curious
hybrid obtained near Thetford, believed to "fee bred between
a Pheasant and a Red-legged Partridge; but Mr. J. H.
Gurney, who has examined this bird, says it is without
doubt a female Golden Pheasants |
A history of bar Pheasant would be incomplete without a
notice of that remarkable assumption of a plumage resem-
bling that of the male observed to take place in some of the
females, and which is well known to sportsmen and game-
keepers, by whom such birds are usually càlled'Mule Pheasants.
The name is correct^'since some of o-ur-dictionaries
shew that the term mule is derived from a word Which signifies
barren, and these hen Pheasants are incapable of-producing
6ggsj from derangement of the generative organs ; "sometimes
owing to an original internal defect, sometimes from subsequent
disease, and sometimes* from old *ageo Thedliusttation
given on the next- page represents on a small scale a preparation
of part of the body-of - a healthy female Pheasant
in winter* in the. left-hand figure; and that of a* diseased
female Pheasant - on the -right hand. The disorganization -is
marked by the appearance of the dark lead colour pervading
th» ovarium, situated on the middle line, and between* the
two kidneys, which dark colour is seen in patches. on Various
parts ofvthe^vMuctu babw, ; ^and I have never- examined a J
hen Pheasant assuming the plumage', of-the male without I
finding more or less of the appearance here indicated*-
In some seasons,:for instaneerthese of-d,#81 and 1&82, a
preponderance. *@f cock-birds compared with'hens has -been
observed. Mr. .Harvie-Rrown states ' that; such; has been the
case, with birds hatched in > Ms Covers from :eggs obtained
from Elveden, and also Ik ;many covers in Peebles, Fife,
Dumbarton, and Perthshire. Similar "accounts have been
received from Norfolk, Surrey? and Sussex.
In the adult male the beak is of a whitish horn colour,
rather darker at the base ; the eyes surrounded with.» naked
skin of a bright scarletycolour, .speckled with abluish-black;
the hides hazel; the head, and the neck all round, steel-blue,
reflecting brown, green, and purple, in different lights ; ear-
coverts dark brown ; feathers of the upper part of the back
orange-red, tipped with velvet-black; back and scapulars
orange-red, tbe centre of each feather dark brown, with an
outer band of straw-yellow & saddle, hackle feathers, rump,
and upper tail-coverts, ligput brownish-red; wing-coverts of
two shades of red quill-feathers. duH|greyish-bro'wn, varied
with pale wood-brown; taiirfeathers very long* pale yellow-
brown, with narrow transverse,;,.black bars about one inch
apart; breast and belly golden* red ; each feather-margined
with veftet-bla'ck, and reflecting Hints of gold and purple:
lower part of the belly, Cent, and under tail-coverts, brownish