Mr. A. Newton on some Hybrid Ducks. 139 



most distinguished European naturalists, M. de Selys-Longchamps, 

 who in 1845 enumerated no less than twenty-five diflFerent crosses 

 produced between various members of this family, and who eleven 

 years later was enabled to raise the number to forty-four *. Others 

 nave also been recorded. 



Although by far the greater proportion of these crosses take place 

 in a state of partial domestication, there can be, I think, no doubt 

 that some occur among birds in a wild state. As an instance I may 

 mention one (the offspring of which has been described, it is true, as 

 a distinct and good species under the various names of Anas mer- 

 go'ides, Mergus anatarius, or Clangula angustirostris), which I can- 

 not but join such high authorities as Naumann, Hartlaub, Baldamus, 

 von Homeyer, Blasius, and De Selys in considering to be the pro- 

 duce of Anas clangula and Mergus albellus, though Kjserbolling, 

 Cabanis, Reichenbach, and Hennecke are of a contrary opinion. 



The specimens which I beg leave first to submit to your notice 

 were most kindly sent for my use by Mr. Daniel G. Elliot of New 

 York, one of our Corresponding Members. They have been already 

 exhibited at a former meeting (November 22, 1859) ; but I do not 

 hesitate again to call your attention to them, because on that occa- 

 sion the origin of two of them was, in my opinion, erroneously ac- 

 counted for. They were then considered to have been respectively 

 produced by crosses between (l)the Wild Duck (Anas boschas) and 

 Pintail {Bafila acuta), (2) the Wild Duck and Muscovy Duck {Cai- 

 rina moschata), and (3) the American Scaup (Fuligula affinis) and 

 the Canvas-back {F. valisneria) or the American Pochard {F. ame- 

 ricana) f . Now, the first of these betrays, to my eye, no sign of 

 descent from the Pintail. Indeed it differs in one respect only from 

 the ordinary appearance of the common hybrid between the Wild 

 Duck and the Dusky Duck (A. obscura) ; and in this one respect— 

 the rufous colouring of the vent — it differs equally from the Pintail. 

 But of this, more presently. The pedigree of the second bird I 

 am disposed to think has been correctly suggested ; but it may 

 be remarked that it is not unlike that curious domesticated variety 

 of the Wild Duck which is known to dealers as the " Labrador, 

 the " Buenos Ayres," the "Black," or the "Velvet" Duck. The 

 origin of the third I believe to be due to a cross between the 

 Collared Duck {Fuligula collaris) on one side, and, on the other, 

 one of the before-mentioned species, but probably the American Po- 

 chard. A resemblance to the Collared Duck is observable in the 

 white spot under the chin, and the grey speculum, — characters which 

 are not possessed by either of the Scaup Ducks found in the New 

 World. This last specimen is a particularly interesting one. It 

 will no doubt be fresh in the recollection of the ornithologists whom 

 I have the honour of addressing, that in April 1847, Mr. Bartlett 



* Edm. de Selys-Longchamps, " Recapitulation des Hybrides observes dans 

 la Famille des Anatidees," Bulletin de I'Acad. Roy. de Bruxelles, torn, xii. no. 10 

 (1845) ; and " Additions a la Recapitulation," &c., Bull, de I'Acad. Roy. de Bel- 

 gique, torn, xxiii. no. 7 (1856). 



t Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 437. 



10* 



