358 



THE TRIALS OF A HYBRID BREEDER. 



By Wm. C. Cunningham. 



Some fourteen years ago, when quite a youth, I put 

 up a few pairs for hybrid breeding, and was so far 

 successful that from a Welsh cock Goldfinch and a 

 Scotch hen Bully I had five young birds living, when — 

 I went ojff for a holiday. My father (who was not a 

 fancier) undertook to attend to the birds. But I came 

 back to find oiil\' one of the hybrids alive. Three had 

 died, and the fourth had escaped from the aviary. The 

 remaining youngster, however, did well and turned out 

 to be a cock. 



The next Spring I put up a larger number of pairs, 

 and was hoping for great things, when a dire calamity 

 befel me, and in one night I lost 22 birds. In my room 

 I had an oil-stove: this must have been turned up too 

 far, for when I opened the birdroom door 1 found the 

 place filled with smoke and soot, and all the poor birds 

 either dead or dying. 



The affair almost broke luy heart, and I did not tr}' 

 for hybrids again until last season, when I mated five 

 pairs. I managed to rear four from Linnet and Bulh' : 

 and if I had had good feeders, I think I should have had 

 a dozen young birds from this pair alone, as nearly every 

 egg the hen laid was fertile. 1 had also fertile eggs from 

 Goldie-Bully, and Redpoll-Bully. The latter hen laid 25 

 eggs, and hope ran high when I found that one of the 

 first nest of eggs was filling up nicely. Great was the 

 disappointment, however, when the egg did not hatch. 

 The young bird was fully developed, and must have died 

 not more than a day before it was due. 



Another egg from this pair was fertile, but I think it 

 went the way of the first. If it did hatch the bird only 

 lived a few days. I am wot quite sure on this point, for I 

 liad two Linnet-Bully eggs and a Redpoll-Bully under the 



