230 MR J. P. SELBY'S NOTICE OF A CURIOUS HYBRID. 



tree; it was composed of nearly the same materials as that of the 

 common sparrow, but proportionally smaller, as were also the eggs 

 and the spots upon them. The eggs were four in number. During 

 the period of hatching, the male kept constantly attending upon the 

 female, chirping, hopping about, and making a variety of motions 

 nearly the whole of the day. 



The tree sparrows commonly associate with the common sparrow, 

 and may be easily detected from that bird by their mode of flying, 

 their flight being invariably lower than that of the other, and accom- 

 panied by a shrill note. It also differs from the house sparrow in 

 preferring always the thicket to the open branch or top of the bush 

 on being approached. 



NEWTON BY THE SEA, July 26. 1840. 



Notice of a curious Hybrid, killed at Chcvington Wood, Northumberland. 

 By J. P. SELBY, Esq. of Twizell-house. 



Hybrids, in a wild or natural state, are so rarely met with, that 

 every well authenticated instance of such an anomaly ought to be re- 

 corded, not only as a mere curiosity or lusus-naturae, but as tending 

 to elucidate the laws of reproduction, and shewing to what extent, 

 under certain circumstances, prolific intercourse is permitted between 

 beings belonging to different species, genera, or groups of even greater 

 extent. It is only under adventitious and peculiar circumstances 

 that we can expect to find such anomalies ir> a natural state, as when 

 a male or female of any species is left alone, and unable to find a 

 mate. In such a case, the individual is inclined or driven to court 

 the society of some nearly allied species that may chance to haunt 

 the same neighbourhood, and intercourse, in consequence, sometimes 

 takes place. Such, we conceive, to be the case in those well authen- 

 ticated instances where the grey-backed crow (Corvus comix), has 

 been known to pair and breed with the common carrion crmv (Corvus 

 eorone). In a confined or domesticated state, hybridism is more 

 easily effected, as the subjects of experiment can be kept together, 

 and separated from all intercourse with other individuals of their re- 

 spective species, and thus, as it were, compelling an intercourse. In 

 such experiments, however, it has always been deemed necessary, in 

 order to insure success, that the intended parents should be nearly 

 ;illied, both generically and specifically, as in the case of the wolf 

 and dog, horse and ass or zebra, among quadrupeds ; the pheasant 

 and domestic fowl, the Muscovy and common duck, the canary and 

 other nearly allied finches, among birds. In the present instance, 

 however, which is that of a hybrid between the black-cock (Tetrao 

 t^trix, Auet.) and pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), this near affinity 



