Dr Morton on Hybrid Animals and Plants. 277 



The Gallus ecaudatus (tail-less fowl) has been triumphantly 

 quoted as an evidence of the power of climate and locality to 

 produce changes, not only of plumage, but of anatomical con- 

 formation. This bird is deficient in the last dorsal vertebrae, 

 and consequently has no tail. But it was asserted, even by 

 some naturalists, that this fowl was originally possessed of a 

 tail, but lost it on being sent from England to Virginia, and 

 domesticated in the latter country. More recent investiga- 

 tiens, however, have proved, that this is a wild native species 

 of Ceylon.* 



The fowl with rumpled or inverted feathers, which was 

 long regarded as a mere accidental variety, is now believed 

 to be a distinct species, and a native of Guiana. It breeds 

 with all the other domestic fowls, and the offspring is prolific 

 without end. 



Fortunately for the further elucidation of this question, the 

 continent of America produces a family of gallinaceous birds, 

 — the Alectors of ornithologists, — among which the very same 

 intermixture of species takes place, and consequent fertile 

 offspring, as we have remarked in the several species of do- 

 mestic fowls. All the Hoccos or Currasows {Crax) for ex- 

 ample, which are derived from their native forests of Guiana, 

 readily unite with each other, giving rise to a progeny th|it is 

 reproductive without end. " It is probable,'' observes a judi- 

 cious ornithologist, '* that if the intercourse were repeated 

 in a variety of ways, it would be possible to cultivate, by suit- 

 able care, many different races of these birds, whose de- 

 scendants might be susceptible of multiplying ad infinitum, 

 and branching out into a number of singular varieties, under 

 the superintendence of man." \ 



hankiva ; O. ceneus ; O. Anstrutheri ; 0. furcatus ; Q. Souneratii ; O. Lafayettii ; 

 Q. giganteus ; 6. morio ; G. lanatus ; Q. ecaudatus, and G. crispus. I omit several 

 supposed species, which may, for the present, be regarded as apocryphal. I 

 have had the pleasure of examining Jive of these original species, contained in 

 the magnificent Wilson Collection of Birds, now deposited, by its liberal pro- 

 prietor, in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



* Griffith's Cuvier, viii., pp. 19, 21, 173 ; Temminck, as quoted in the same 

 work. 



t Griffith's Cuvier, viii., p. 100. 



