Remarks on Hybrids. 199 



ing them, I must be excused for endeavouring to sift it as 

 closely as possible. 



All the numerous instances of mule productions in the 

 animal kingdom, which have come to my knowledge, have 

 invariably been distinctly referable to the agency of man, 

 either in a direct or in an indirect manner; and I am not 

 aware that any of the numerous writers on the subject have 

 mentioned a single satisfactory * instance similar to this of 

 Mr. Berry, in which both parents were in a true state of 

 nature; that is to say, each in their natural climate and 

 locality, wild and free. 



To descend to particulars. The domesticated horse 

 breeds with the domesticated ass; the domestic sheep with 

 the domestic goat ; the wild wolf, jackal, or fox, under par- 

 ticular circumstances, with the domesticated dog; the wild 

 pheasant with the domestic fowl; the stoat, and the pine 

 marten, in confinement, have been known to breed with the 

 ferret, or domesticated polecat; the lion, in a state of con- 

 finement, has bred with an imprisoned tigress; the zebra, 

 in confinement, with a domestic ass ; the linnet, siskin, gold- 

 finch, chaffinch, and green grosbeak, in confinement, will 

 mix with the domestic canary-bird ; the British turtle-dove, 

 in confinement, has been known to breed with the domes- 

 ticated ring-necked turtle-dove of the West Indies : strange 

 mixtures, in confinement, often take place among the ^natidae, 

 or duck family, but these mixtures have never been known in 

 a wild state; the silver pheasant has, in confinement, hy- 

 bridised with the common pheasant of this country ; but we 

 should, I presume, look in vain for such a union in the 

 woods of China, where both of these, together with several 

 other very congruous species, are said to exist in multitudes. 



I have been accustomed, from these and various other 

 facts, to deduce the following conclusions with regard to 

 hybrids, which I still suspect will prove to be correct and 

 sound : — 1st, that they are never produced by two wild 

 animals; 2dly, that when a wild animal is concerned, it is 

 invariably a male, with a domesticated female ; and, 3dly, 

 that all hybrid animals are, in consequence, distinctly refer- 

 able to man's agency. 



* The several reported cases of unions between the carrion and hooded 

 crows, one of which (that mentioned in Nos. vi. and xi. of the Field 

 Naturalist's Magazine) is given on most respectable authority, may seera, 

 perhaps, to militate against the above; but it does not appear that any of 

 these individuals were ever examined; and ornithologists are agreed on the 

 fact, that black variations of the hooded crow sometimes occur. I have 

 myself examined one, a female, in which several black feathers were inter- 

 mixed with the ash colour on the back. [See in p. 228, in continuation.] 



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