Hybrid Birds 



Turning now to some other groups, we find 

 a fertile hybrid among the parrakeets in the 

 so-called red- mantled parrakeet (Platycercus 

 erythropeplus), which has produced young in 

 confinement, and was shown in a recent 

 volume of the Avicultural Magazine to be 

 merely a hybrid between the Rosella (I'laty- 

 cercus eximius) and Pennant's parrakeet {Platy- 

 eercus elegans). These two parrakeets are very 

 distinct, Pennant's being a bigger bird than the 

 rosella, and coloured red, purple-blue and black, 

 with a distinct immature plumage of uniform 

 olive-green, while the rosella's colour is very 

 largely yellow in addition to the other hues, and 

 it assumes almost perfect adult plumage from 

 the nest. 



Considering what free breeders are the various 

 species of doves and pigeons, it might have been 

 expected that much light would have been shed 

 on this subject by that group ; but this appears 

 not to be the case. Wild hybrids among these 

 birds are almost unknown, and even in domes- 

 tication very remote crosses seem not to have 

 occurred. The two domestic species, however, 

 the common pigeon and the collared turtle- 

 dove ( Turtur risorius) not unfrequently produce 

 hybrids ; but these appear to be usually quite 

 sterile, although ready enough to mate. Out 

 of three of these I have seen, two exactly 



