Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/353

Rh poor condition. I am glad to say I have not heard of a specimen having been wilfully killed, and I suppose it is too much to hope that the birds recorded were of Hampshire origin. A writer in the 'Field' of January last recorded the nesting of the species two consecutive years in South Hants, the exact localities being wisely withheld for obvious reasons.— (Ringwood, Hants).

Spoonbill at Great Yarmouth.—On June 7th a magnificent Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) was seen on Breydon, where I put it up. Black-headed Gulls, out of curiosity, were keeping it company, and they followed it to another resting place, not he them. I also saw two on the night of June 9th (not including the same bird), in company with Black-backed Gulls. Twelve were seen on June 4th for an hour or two on Breydon, and afterwards observed at Waxham.— (Ibis House, Great Yarmouth).

Hybrid Pheasant.—It is well known how readily the various species of Pheasants interbreed—sometimes even with the poultry of the farmyard—and this to such an extent that what is said to be the original stock, with dark uniform steel-blue neck and dark legs, is now seldom met with where extensive rearing is practised. Thus the size and consequent weight have in many instances deteriorated, and the plumage has become so varied that in some cases it is almost impossible to say to what particular species or "strain" in this most beautiful plumaged class of birds some individual specimens belong. I am alluding to birds in a semi-wild state, and not to those kept in confinement, for in the latter case, if I may judge from a series of skins I saw some time since, the variation in plumage is very great, especially with the Amherst and Golden Pheasant. I have heard it asserted—whether rightly or wrongly, I cannot say—that the Common Pheasant (meaning, I suppose, the hybridized bird so commonly reared) seldom interbreeds with the "Golden." In the spring of 1898 a gamekeeper informed me that in one of his covers he had seen a common cock Pheasant consorting with a hen "Golden," and subsequently he found her nest, with, I believe, seven eggs in it, five of which were duly hatched. During the shooting season of 1898–9 one of these birds was killed—a cock—of such a peculiar colour that the proprietor of the shooting had it preserved and mounted. It was of a uniform reddish cinnamon, except the neck, which was of a bronze-copper shot with shades of purple. The development of its plumage was, however, normal, except the tail, which was longer than in the ordinary bird. Last season two others of the brood were killed, and, being a year older, one of them at least was more fully developed; but, although a second season's bird, it had no indication of spurs. Its tail was of the same form, but much longer than in the ordinary