^00 Remarks on Hybrids. 



The second of these deductions is worthy of some attention, 

 and it may be simply resolved into this, that no female wild 

 animal will permit the approaches of a male of another 

 species. Thus, it is only the female (domestic) dog which 

 hybridises with the wild fox ; and it is the wild male pheasant 

 only which couples with the domestic poultry. Even the 

 hybrid I*ringillidae, so common in the bird-shops, have, in 

 almost every instance, for their female parent, the domes- 

 ticated canary-bird : it being found by the breeders that a 

 mixture will hardly ever take place in the opposite manner. 



I have never yet heard of a hybrid animal being found 

 wild, the origin of which might not, with more than pro- 

 bability, be traced to a domestic female, which perhaps had 

 strayed and had acquired its liberty; and this particularly 

 induces me to make farther and minute enquiry into the facts 

 of the case stated by Mr. Berry. 



I have been shown a caged bird, said to have been a mule 

 production between the blackbird and thrush, but at once 

 perceived it to be merely a hen blackbird, with a pale and 

 very spotted breast ; I have also seen another variation of the 

 hen blackbird, so pale on the upper parts that, when flying, it 

 might very easily be mistaken for a thrush ; and, if I re- 

 member right, the skin of a similar individual may be seen 

 among the specimens of British killed birds in the British 

 Museum. Might not, therefore, in Mr. Berry's instance, an- 

 other similar hen blackbird have been mistaken for a thrush. 

 Again, how is it that none of the progeny of two such 

 remarkable unions have ever been examined? I say two 

 unions, for it does not necessarily follow that the very same 

 individuals paired together for two successive years ; though 

 I know that this is frequently the case with many insessorial 

 birds, as I could easily prove. It is clear that no mono- 

 gamous bird would ever hybridise but for want of a mate of 

 its own species (a very unlikely case with either of the 

 species in question), and if it even were to do so one season, 

 is it at all likely that it should be obliged a second ? Or even 

 if one wild monogamous bird were to be inclined to hy- 

 bridise, is it likely that it should ever be able to find a mate 

 of another species also so inclined ? If one of Mr. Berry's 

 birds was a mere variety, there is nothing extraordinary in 

 its being able to find a mate; but the probabilities are so 

 decidedly opposed to this being a case of unnatural union, 

 that a very rigorous examination is necessary, and it requires 

 to be supported by the most satisfactory and conclusive evi- 

 dence, before it can be admitted as a fact, that the blackbird 

 and the thrush have bred together in a state of nature. 



I have not the slightest shadow of a wish to call in ques- 



