226 Necpnt Ornithohyical Publications. 



conclude by saying that nearly all the plates, as, indeed, is usual 

 in any works with which Prof. Schlegel has to do, are beautifully 

 drawn — a rare merit in these days. 



In the 'Archives Neerlandaises' for 1867, Ileer Crommelin pub- 

 lishes some " Contributions a I'Hybridologie Ornithologique." 

 Those who are acquainted with the two excellent papers of M, de 

 Selvs-Longchamps, in the ' Bulletins ' of the Royal Academy of 

 Brussels (vols. xii. and xxiii.) know that it is not easy to detect 

 a new hybrid among the European Anatidce which has escaped 

 the notice of that expert Belgian naturalist; but Heer Crommelin 

 seems to have found two such new crosses. One, between the 

 Mute Swan and the tame Goose, it is true, has been before 

 mentioned by Mr. Morton, but, it is believed, erroneously. The 

 offspring of this union did not arrive at maturity. The second 

 new cross recorded by our author is believed by him to be 

 between Anas acuta and A. strcpera. We must remark that in 

 the case of wild hybrids there must always be very great uncer- 

 tainty as to their parentage ; even among partly tame birds such 

 uncertainty sometimes exists ; it is a wise man who always knows 

 his own duck's father ! As an instance of this we may cite the 

 remarkable case described and figured by Mr. Sclater (P. Z. S. 

 1859, p. 442, pi. clviii.) of the hybrids bred in the Zoological 

 Gardens, and known to have been produced from Tadorna vul- 

 panser (^ , and T. cana ? . JNo person seeing or even examining 

 these specimens could have rightly guessed their descent, the 

 plumage not being at all a blendmg of the plumage of their 

 parents, but possessing some characters, to wit " the dusky-grey 

 flanks," quite distinct from either, and possessing, indeed, a 

 certain resemblance to that of the Australian T. tadornoides, 

 reverting, no doubt Mr. Darwin would say, to the coloration of 

 some remote progenitor, a Tadorna prisca, of which the Austra- 

 lian Shelldrake is now the form that varies least from the 

 original stock. 



4. German. 

 It has long been known that Natterer was a model traveller; 

 and it has long been a subject of regret that so little respecting 

 his researches and discoveries in South America, where he 



