SEX TRANSFORMATION

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2238, 26 August 1914, Page 8

SEX TRANSFORMATION

A PROBLEM FOR SPORTSMEN

HEN PHEASANTS IN THE PLUMAGE OP COOKS.

■ Ono 'pjirt of the exhibition which opened recently at the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields; was designed to illustrate a problem' in which sportsmen are interested as well , as. medical men. Breeders of pheasants, are well aware that occasionally hen birds appeaY dressed in a,plumjgo which > resembles that of tho cock pheasant to a greater or less degree. The medical man and biologist are interested becauso it is known that a transformation in sexual characters may take place', not. as the bird grows tip, but after it has passed through several seasons as a normal hen bird. ' A specimen investigated ■by Hunter, 'the founder 'of the Surgeons' Museum, and now placed on exhibition, may be taken'as typical. It is the case of a pea-hen which had the following remarkablo history ;—She was "tho favourite pied pea-hen of Lady Tynte, and produced chickens right several times. Having moulted- when about 11 years old, the lady and family were astonished by her displaying the feathers peculiar to the other sex, and appeared like a pied peacock. In"the third year she did the same, and in addition had spurs resembling those of..a cock. Sho never bred after this change in her plumage, and died in tho following winter during the •hard, frost in the year 1775-76." c, In recent years biologists have realised that such cases provide them with opportunities of discovering the secrets'.which; underlie the differentiation of sexesj men are also interested. cases, for although a direct transforniation of sex has never boen observed in a human being, yet cases of a'somewhat similar nature do. come imder their notice. At the last meeting of "the' Obstetrical Society of Edinburgh a case was recorded where "the patient,,agreed to have tho Jong hair cut short'oh her head, and she leftthe hospital wearing male attire." The exhibition now'opened is intended'to elucidate such cases. The exhibition' how open shows that the : investigations begun by John Hunter a century and a half ago are being continued by the officers of the museum, arid that the specimens provided from the Royal coverts have proved' of great service in their researches. It is becoming apparent that •.there are at' least three kinds of "mule" pheasant—the term, "mule" being the one to denote birds of uncertain sex. The common "mule" pheasant is.a- hen bird which, like Lady Tyntc's pied.pea-hen, begins, in old age, to'assume,the plumage and characters of the cook. In such birds the reproductive glands are found to'have atrophied, lost the structure natural'to the female, and in some'cases taken on an imperfect male character. It is believed that tho changes in tho • external appearance of the ; "mule" pheasant are secondary to the alteration in the, reproductive glands. In another but very rare class tiro "mulo" pheasant represents a male assuming".' the'-; female plumage. ■ ■ Such case.shave'been recorded by Professors Shattock and Seligmann and by Dr. Hammond Smith.