CiiAP. XIV. PREFERENCE BY THE FEMALE. 115 



give only one other case ; Mr. Hewitt states that a wild 

 duck, reared in captivity, "after breeding a couple of 

 " seasons with her own mallard, at once shook him off 

 '• on my placing a male Pintail on the water. It was 

 " evidently a case of love at first sight, for she swam 

 *' about the new-comer caressingly, though he appeared 

 " evidently alarmed and averse to her overtures of 

 '' affection. From that hour she forgot her old partner. 

 " Winter passed by, and the next spring the Pintail 

 "' seemed to have become a convert to her blandish- 

 '* ments, for they nested and produced seven or eight 

 " vouns: ones." 



What the charm may have been in these several 

 cases, beyond mere novelty, we cannot even conjecture. 

 Colour, however, sometimes comes into play ; for in 

 order to raise hybrids from the siskin {Fringilla s^inus) 

 and the canary, it is much the best plan, according to 

 Bechstein, to place birds of the same tint together. 

 Mr. Jenner Weir turned a female canary into his aviary, 

 where there were male linnets, goldfinches, siskins, 

 green-finches, chaffinches, and other birds, in order to 

 see which she would choose ; but there never was any 

 doubt, and the greenfinch carried the day. They paired 

 and produced hybrid offspring. 



With the members of the same species the fact of the 

 female preferring to pair with one male ratlier than 

 with another is not so likely to excite attention, as 

 when this occurs between distinct species. Such cases 

 can best be observed with domesticated or confined 

 birds ; but these are often pampered by high feeding, 

 and sometimes iiave their instincts vitiated to an ex- 

 treme degree. Of this latter fact I could give sufficient 

 proofs v/ith pigeons, and especially with fowls, but they 

 cannot be here related. Vitiated instincts may also 

 account lor some of the hybrid unions above referred 



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