Dr MoHon on Hybrid Animals and Plants. 281 



currence of prolific offspring between different species of birds, 

 is an evidence of the near affinity between them ; and that, 

 when the reverse takes place (infertile mules), it proves the 

 disparity between the species thus brought together. 



Hybrids of the Anatidoe. — The cross between the Anser 

 cygnoides and the common tame goose of Europe, is prover- 

 bially frequent, and the offspring has proved prolific* Mr 

 Eyton and Mr Blyth have recorded examples of this kind, 

 and M. Chevreul has seen the progeny extend through seven 

 generations, t 



The Anser canadensis is often taken in the United States 

 and reduced to the domestic state, in which it crosses with 

 our common goose, producing a hybrid offspring, which, how- 

 ever, appears to be steril. 



The swan {Cygnus olor) has crossed with the common 

 European goose, but I am not aware that the hybridity has 

 been noticed beyond the first offspring. This fact is quoted 

 by Dr Prichard from M. Frederick Cuvier. 



Mr Charles Waterton, the celebrated traveller, has pub- 

 lished a very interesting account of a hybrid between the fe- 

 male Canada goose and the wild Bernacle gander (Anser 

 bernicla).X This fact occurred at Mr Waterton's seat at 

 Walton Hall, England. " These hybrids," he observes, 'J are 

 elegantly shaped, but are not so large as the mother, nor so 

 small as the father, their plumage partaking in colour with 

 that of both parents. The white on their front is only half 

 as much as is seen on the front of the gander, while their 

 necks are brown in lieu of the coal-black colour which ap- 

 pears on the neck of the goose. Their breasts, too, are of a 

 dusky colour, while the breast of the bernacle is black, and 

 that of the Canadian white ; and throughout the whole of the 

 remaining plumage there may be seen an altered and modi- 

 fied colouring, not to be traced in that of the parent birds." § 



It remains to notice some instances of hybridity among 



* Loudon's Magazine, ix., p. 511. Temminck, Manuel d'Ornithologie, i., 

 p. 109. — Eyton, Monograph of Anatidae. 

 t Journal des Savans, June 1846. 

 X Bcrnicia brenta. § Essays on Nat. History, p. 118, 2d edition. 



VOL. XLIII. NO. LXXXVI. — OCTOBER 1847. T 



