280 Dr Morton on Hybrid Atiimals and Plants. 



ent characteristics were owing to a mere difference of lo- 

 cality.* 



On the other hand, those persons who, for pastime, have 

 given great attention to this subject, are of the opinion that 

 the cage-canary is not derived only from the Frlngilla cana- 

 riay but that it is, itself, a fertile hybrid, of which there now 

 exist upwards of thirty various breeds. 



Syme, who has written on the British song-birds, says that 

 the wild canaries of the islands that bear that name, have 

 less resemblance in song and plumage to the domestic cana- 

 ry, than to the Siskin of Germany, the Venturon of Italy, or 

 the Serin of France. 



The celebrated ornithologist Bechstein adds the following 

 remarks : " We might almost conclude that the Venturon 

 (F. citrinelld), the Serin (F. serinus), and the Siskin {Cardu- 

 elis spinus), are the wild originals of the cage-canary. I have 

 seen a bird produced between the Siskin and Serin which 

 perfectly resembled the variety called the green canary ; — 

 I have also seen a mule from a grey female canary, whose 

 true parentage could not be distinguished." The Siskin, it 

 will be observed, belongs to a different genus from the wild 

 canary. 



The canary is now known to breed, not only with the three 

 species just mentioned, but also with the linnet, sparrow, 

 chaffinch, bunting, greenfinch, and bullfinch; and with several 

 of them it produces a fertile offspring. 



M. Veilliot once caught a mule bird, which he supposed to 

 be the produce of a male greenfinch (F. chloris) and a female 

 goldfinch ; for it mingled the size, colour, and song of both 

 these species. This bird did not appear to have resulted 

 from the domestication of the parents, for it remained ex- 

 tremely wild, yet was brought to couple with a female ca- 

 nary.f 



A yet more remote alliance, that between a canary and a 

 nightingale, produced an egg that could not be hatched. 

 This fact conjoined with others to which we have adverted, 

 illustrates the remark of Professor Temminck, that the oc- 



* Griffith's Cuvier, vii. 271. t Idem, p. 259. 



