14 LONDON BIKDS 



stand on opposite sides, both very near the border-line 

 which ornithologists have drawn to cut off Ducks 

 from Geese. 



Charles St. John wrote many years ago : ' Instead of 

 the waddle of the Mallard, the Sheldrake walks about 

 with a light active step and erect carriage, more 

 resembling that of the Wild Goose than any other 

 bird ' ; and, lately, Professor Newton has suggested that 

 the family of which the Egyptian Goose is, perhaps, the 

 best-known member ' should be referred rather to the 

 anatine than to the anserine section of the Anatidae.' 

 But for the present they are ' duck ' and ' goose.' 



It is with Wild Fowl as with other untutored native 

 races. The touch of the white man's civilisation is apt 

 to demoralise. Hybrids in the natural state are, com- 

 paratively speaking, rare. In captivity the difficulty is 

 to keep the species true. 



One of the two young birds, a Gander-Drake, in 1892 

 mated at a year old with a maternal aunt. But Nature, 

 though in her dealings with species she occasionally 

 admits halves and halves, has a rooted objection to 

 more complicated fractions ; and six eggs, which were 

 in due course laid and sat upon, were all addled. 



A Hawfinch a bird which is probably commoner 

 than is generally supposed, as it is its habit to keep 

 as much as possible out of sight was picked up in 

 St. James's Park on the 28th January 1890. It was 

 a hen in good condition. About the same time the 

 following year, and in the same place, a Mountain 

 Finch was found, a visitor from the North, uncommon 



