October 4, 1790
Three martin’s nests at Mr Burbey’s are now full of young!
Three martin’s nests at Mr Burbey’s are now full of young!
The row of ten weeks stocks under the fruit-wall makes a beautiful show.
Bro. Thomas, & his daughter Mrs Ben White left us, & went to London. Lord Stawell sent me from the great Lodge in the Holt a curious bird for my inspection. It was found by the spaniels of one of the keepers in a coppice, & shot on the wing. The shape, & air, & habit of the bird, & the scarlet ring round the eyes, agreed well with the appearance of a cock pheasant; but then the head & neck, & breast & belly, were of a glossy black: & tho’ it weighed 3 ae 3 1/2 oun., the weight of a large full-grown cock pheasant, yet there were no signs of any spurs on the legs, as is usual with all grown cock pheasants, who have long ones. the legs & feet were naked of feathers; & therefore it could be nothing of the Grous kind. In the tail were no long bending feathers, such as cock pheasants usually have, & are characteristic of the sex. The tail was much shorter than the tail of an hen pheasant, & blunt & square at the end. The back, wing-feathers, & tail, were all of a pale russet, curiously streaked, somewhat like the upper parts of an hen partridge. I returned it to the noble sender with my verdict, that it was probably a spurious or hen bird, bred between a cock pheasant and some demestic fowl. When I came to talk with the keeper who brought it, he told me, that some Pea-hens had been known last summer to haunt the coppices & coverts where this mule was found. *Hen pheasants usually weigh only 2 ae 1 oun. My advice was that his Lordship would employ Elmer of Farnham, the famous game-painter, to take an exact copy of this curious bird. — His Lordship did employ Elmer, & sent me as a present a good painting of that rare bird.