25« 



argument and account for the assumed robustness and 

 longevity of the mule on the score of the delicate 

 Canary parentage having been re-inforced by the 

 hardy wild blood. Now let us see how far this holds 

 good. I have alluded to the well known fact that 

 while in the nest they are actually more prone to 

 death than young pure bred Canaries, so that we see 

 that they are after all not so hardy as Canaries of the 

 same age, though they are bein^ brought up under the 

 same conditions. Where then does the prepotence of 

 their wmM parentage come in ? Why, in precisely a con- 

 trary direction to the one alleged : the non-immunized 

 wild bird bequeaths to his half bred son a less power 

 of resistance against the highly specialized bacteria 

 propagated in egg than is possessed by the young of 

 the partially immunized pure bred and domesticated 

 Canary, so that any degree of hardiness the mule may 

 possess is derived after all from the Canary side of the 

 family and not from the wild finch. Again if the 

 mule owes such hardiness as he has to his father, why 

 is not the nestling hybrid between two wild birds (but 

 brought up in a cage under Canaries) still more hardy, 

 seeing that it comes of a feral stock on both sides ? 

 So far from this being the case we all know that it is 

 even more difficult to rear than is the hybrid which 

 has the Canary for one parent, and for the same 

 reasons, viz. that its wild parentage is, of all things 

 connected with it, that which is least calculated to 

 preserve it from the effects of organisms bred in that 

 state of concentration and virulence which is insepar- 

 able from either cage or aviary, and which moreover 

 is always being heightened, as though it were not 

 already bad enough, by the fostering encouragement 

 afforded by egg food. 



Returning to our Canar\' hybrid : — let us further 

 enquire how facts bear upon it. I have it on the 

 authority of more than one well known gentleman 

 who is specially qualified to inform me of the truth. 



