334 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



duck when wild, and half-wild ones bred at the Zoo 

 perched freely if left unpinioned. As, however, 

 the ancestor of the Ducks was a percher if the 

 Magpie-Goose really represents it this would again 

 be a case of reversion. The greater readiness to 

 take wing in these Muscovy-Mallard hybrids, which 

 has long been well known, as they have often been 

 shot in a wild state, is undoubtedly a reversionary 

 trait, the common Duck being usually flightless and 

 the tame Muscovy very lazy, though able to fly. 



Generally speaking, hybrids between remote 

 species, placed universally in different genera, such 

 as most of those of which I have been speaking, are 

 inclined to be wild and spiteful, and are almost 

 universally sterile ; so much so, that one cannot 

 persuade bird-fanciers that the Goldfinch-Canary 

 " mule " can ever breed. A few years ago, however, 

 a bird was exhibited at a Horticultural Hall bird 

 show which purported to be a cross between a 

 Goldfinch-Canary and a true Goldfinch, and as it 

 looked exactly what one would expect such a bird 

 to be like, and most certainly not like the ordinary 

 first cross or like any casual variation of the Gold- 

 finch, I am inclined to accept its authenticity; 

 especially as M. Suchetet, in his book on wild 

 hybrids in birds, mentions breeding on one occasion 

 from the hybrid between the domestic Dove and 

 Pigeon, mated back to a Dove, though this cross 

 is also usually quite sterile. 



Hybrids between closely allied species, such as the 

 Amherst and Golden Pheasants, and Mallard and 



