Mr. A. Newton on some Hybrid Ducks. 141 



constant in his observations as myself, entirely coincided in this opi- 

 nion. In the month of April the female hybrid made her nest, and 

 sat upon her eggs, in due time hatching four ducklings, which 

 proved to be two females and two males. The skins of the latter 

 I now exhibit, and I have no scruple whatever in regarding them 

 as actually the produce inter se of a pair of hybrids between to- 

 tally distinct species. In the breeding-seasons of 1857 and 18.58 

 I was away from home. Last year I was anxious to ascertain if 

 these hybrids of the second generation would produce again inter se ; 

 and I watched them narrowly. The result of my observations was, 

 that they were probably infertile ; and after their death my suspicions 

 were strengthened by the dissection I made. I may add that in 

 the present season the old hybrid female, the mother of the subjects 

 of these remarks, has brought out two broods of young ones, which 

 I cannot but regard as also the offspring of their putative father, 

 but, through other occupations, I have not been able to afford the 

 necessary time to watch them. I forbear, therefore, to adduce them 

 in support of my argument. It, however, appears to me that the 

 common assertion to which I have alluded requires considerable mo- 

 dification, and that all that can be said is, that, though the hybrid 

 offspring of two animals clearly distinct may of themselves be per- 

 fectly fertile, it is not proved that this fertility extends to a second 

 generation. 



There is one other point which I must be allowed to mention 

 before quitting the subject. It will be seen that the two birds ex- 

 hibited differ remarkably in plumage, although of the same parentage, 

 sex, and age ; for they were born and killed within a day or two of 

 each other. The larger specimen almost exactly resembles his 

 father ; but perhaps his colours are not so warm or brilliant. The 

 smaller bird is of an appearance altogether distinct ; and the almost 

 uniform mottled grey of his breast and belly would make it perhaps 

 difficult to guess his parentage. I can account for the divergence 

 only in this way, that the Domestic Duck from which these birds 

 are descended was of that almost whole-coloured variety which is 

 not unfrequently seen in farm-yards, and that, Avhile one of her 

 grand-children shows nearly the typical plumage of the hybrid be- 

 tween the Wild Duck and the Pintail, the other takes after some 

 progenitor of the variety I have mentioned. Whether this will serve 

 to illustrate the peculiarity I have above mentioned, and also a curious 

 fact alluded to by our Secretary in a late communication on some 

 Hybrid Ducks bred in the Society's Gardens, wherein it is stated 

 that the produce of a cross between Tadorna vulpanser and Casurca 

 cana present a character " scarcely deducible from either,* " I do 

 not say. It is, however, not difficult to sec what use may be made of 

 this singular circumstance by those who advocate the views of Mr. 

 Darwin ; but into any consideration of this question I forbear to enter, 

 contenting myself merely by noticing the fact. 



* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 442, Aves, Pl.CLVIII. 



