330 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



original Pheasant was of this colour, though no 

 such species now exists ; and it is also common in 

 parts of the plumage in crosses among waterfowl. 

 Glossy purple is also a common colour where gloss 

 exists in the parents, although purple gloss is rare 

 in pure birds. In the cross between the common 

 red Jungle-Fowl and the green Javan bird, for 

 instance, the hybrid cock has a purple neck and 

 tail, both neck and tail being green in the Javan 

 species, while the tail is also green even in the red 

 bird. Similarly with regard to the appearance of 

 auburn, the breast of the hybrid Gold- and- Silver 

 Pheasant is of this colour, although one parent has 

 a scarlet and the other a blue-black breast. 



In the hybrid of the Mallard and the Red- 

 crested Pochard both tendencies appear ; the 

 breast is fawn, quite unlike the chocolate of the 

 Mallard and the black of the other Duck, while 

 the head is of a metallic puce, a colour one would 

 never imagine to have been derived from the Mal- 

 lard's emerald-green and the Pochard's chestnut 

 and buff. It is obvious in such cases that the 

 colours are not blends of those of the parents, and 

 the inference would seem to be that chestnut or 

 rufous, and purple, were formerly commoner 

 colours among Ducks and Pheasants than they are 

 to-day; since among crosses of varieties of the 

 same species of domestic birds there is a strong 

 tendency to reversion to the original colour, Darwin 

 having got birds resembling the Rock-Pigeon and 

 the Jungle-Fowl by crossing different breeds of 



