Chap. XIV. Preference by the Female. 415 



ditional instances could be given ; and the Eev. E. S. Dixon 

 remarks that " those who have kept many different species of 

 " geese together, well know what unaccountable attachments 

 " they are frequently forming, and that they 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 Rev. W. ID. 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 

 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 blandishments, for they nested and 

 " produced seven or eight young 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 ( Fringilia spinus) 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, 

 greenfinches, 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. 



The fact of the female preferring to pair with one male rathei 

 than with another of the same species, is not so likely to excite 

 attention, as when this occurs, as we have just seen, between 

 distinct species. The former cases can best be observed with 

 domesticated or confined birds ; but these are often pampered 

 by high feeding, and sometimes have their instincts vitiated to 

 an extreme degree. Of this latter fact I could give sufficient 

 proofs with pigeons, and especially with fowls, but they cannot 

 be here related. Vitiated instincts may also account for some 



