114 SEXUAL selection: BIKDS. Part II. 



remarks do not apply to the many recorded instances of 

 tamed or domestic birds, belonging to distinct species, 

 which have become absolutely fascinated with each 

 other, although living with their own species. Thus 

 Waterton^^ states that out of a flock of twenty-three 

 Canada geese, a female paired with a solitary Bernicle 

 gander, although so different in appearance and size ; 

 and they produced hybrid offspring. A male Wigeon 

 (Mareca fenelo^e), living with females of the same 

 species, has been known to pair with a Pintail duck, 

 Querquedula acuta. Lloyd describes the remarkable 

 attachment between a shield-drake (Tadorna vulpanser) 

 and a common duck. Manv additional instances could 

 be given ; and the Kev. E. S. Dixon remarks that " Those 

 " who have kept many different species of geese to- 

 " gether, well know what unaccountable attachments 

 " they are frequently forming, and that the}^ are quite 

 " as likely to pair and rear young with individuals of a 

 " race (species) apparently the most alien to themselves, 

 " as with their own stock." 



The Kev. W. D. Fox informs me that he possessed at 

 the same time a pair of Chinese geese (Anser cygnoides), 

 and a common gander with three geese. The two lots 

 kept quite separate, until the Chinese gander seduced 

 one of the common geese to live with him. Moreover, 

 of the young birds hatched from the eggs of the common 

 geese, only four were pure, the other eighteen proving 

 hybrids ; so that the Chinese gander seems to have 

 had prepotent charms over the common gander. I will 



1^ Waterton, 'Essays on Nat. Hist.' 2nd series, p. 42, 117. For the 

 following statements, see on the wigeon, Loudon's ' Mag. of Nat, Hist.' 

 vol. ix. p. 616; Ij. Lloyd, ' Scandinavian Adventures,' vol. i. 1854, p. 452 ; 

 Dixon, ' Ornainent;d and Domestic Poultry,' p. 137 ; Hewitt, in ' Journal 

 of Horticulture,' Jan. 13, 1863, p. 40 ; Beclistein, ' Stubenvogel/ 1840, 

 s. 230. 



