20 INHERITANCE. Chap. XIII. 



who raised a large number of hybrids from a bantam-hen by 

 Gdllus sonneratii, states that "all were exceedingly wild." 

 Mr. Waterton 44 bred some wild ducks from eggs hatched 

 under a common duck, and the young were allowed to cross 

 freely both amongst themselves and with the tame ducks ; 

 they were " half wild and half tame ; they came to the 

 windows to be fed, but still they had a wariness about them 

 quite remarkable." 



On the other hand, mules from the horse and ass are 

 certainly not in the least wild, though notorious for obstinacy 

 and vice. Mr. Brent, who has crossed canary-birds with 

 many kinds of finches, has not observed, as he informs me, 

 that the hybrids were in any way remarkably wild : but 

 Mr. Jenner Weir who has had still greater experience, is of a 

 directly opposite opinion. He remarks that the siskin is the 

 tamest of finches, but its mules are as wild, when young, as 

 newly caught birds, and are often lost through their continued 

 efforts to escape. Hybrids are often raised between the 

 common and musk duck, and I have been assured by three 

 persons, who have kept these crossed birds, that they were 

 not wild ; but Mr. Garnett 45 observed that his hybrids were 

 wild, and exhibited " migratory propensities " of which there 

 is not a vestige in the common or musk duck. No case is 

 known of this latter bird having escaped and become wild in 

 Europe or Asia, except, according to Pallas, on the Caspian 

 Sea ; and the common domestic cluck only occasionally becomes 

 wild in districts where large lakes and fens abound. Never- 

 theless, a large number of cases have been recorded 46 of 

 hj'brids from these two ducks having been shot in a com- 

 pletely wild state, although so few are reared in comparison 

 with purely-bred birds of either species. It is improbable 

 that any of these hybrids could have acquired their wildness 



44 'Essays on Natural History,' p. asserts ('Zoologist,' vol. v., 1845— 4b\ 

 917. p. 1:254) that several have been shot 



45 As stated by Mr. Orton, in his in various parts of Belgium and 

 ' Physiology of Breeding,' p. 12. Northern France. Audubon ('Ornith- 



46 M. E. de Selys-Longehamps olog. Biography,' vol. iii. p. 168), 

 refers ('Bulletin Acad. Roy. de Brux- speaking of these hybrids, says that, 

 elles,' torn. xii. No. 10) to more than in North America, they " now and 

 seven of these hybrids shot in then wander off and become quite 

 Switzerland and France. JI. Debv wild." 



