110 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. [Part IL 



kept many different species of gccsc together, well know 

 what unaccountable attachments they are frequently form- 

 ing, and that they are quite as likely to pair and rear 

 young with individuals of a race (species) apparently the 

 most alien to themselves, as with their own stock," 



The Rev. W. D. Fox informs me that he possessed at 

 the same time a pair of Chinese geese [Anser cygnokles), 

 and a coinmon gander with three geese. The two lots 

 kept quite separate, until the Chinese gander seduced one 

 of the common geese to live with him. Moreover, of the 

 young birds hatched from the eggs of the common geese, 

 only four were pure, the other eighteen proving hybrids ; 

 so that the Chinese gander seems to have had prepotent 

 charms over the common gander. I will give only one 

 other case ; Mr. Hewitt states that a wild-duck, reared in 

 captivity, " after breeding a couple of seasons with her own 

 mallard, at once shook him off on my placing a male Pin- 

 tail on the water. It was evidently a case of love at first 

 sight, for she swam about the new-comer caressingly, 

 though he appeared evidently alarmed and averse to her 

 overtures of affection. From that hour she forgot her old 

 partner. Winter passed by, and the next spring the Pintail 

 seemed to have become a convert to her blandishments, 

 for thej' nested and produced seven or eight young ones." 



What the charm may have been in these several cases, 

 beyond mere novelty, we cannot even conjecture. Color, 

 however, sometimes comes into play ; for in order to raise 

 hybrids from the siskin {Prinf/iUa sphms) and the canary, 

 it is much the best plan, according to Bechstein, to place 

 birds of the same tint together. Mr. Jenner Weir turned 

 a female canary into his aviary, where there were male 

 linnets, goldfinches, siskins, greenfinches, chatfinches, and 

 other birds, in order to see which she would choose ; but 

 there never was any doubt, and the greenfinch carried the 

 day. They ^laired and produced hybrid offspring. 



