MULTIPLE HYBRIDITY 335 



Pintail Ducks, are normal or nearly so in behaviour 

 and reproductive power ; when bred inter se the 

 second generation do not segregate again into the 

 original forms or break up into numerous varieties, 

 as do the offspring of crossed domestic breeds, but 

 remain nearly or quite true to type, so far as the 

 few experiments yet made give us information. 



The blood of several species can be blended into 

 one hybrid, as in the case of the triple-crossed 

 Ducks mentioned above, and Mr. J. L. Bonhote has 

 crossed as many as five species, but all nearly allied ; 

 M. Rogeron's hybrids of the Gadwall-Mallard with 

 the Pochard were sterile. They were, by the way, 

 true to type, and showed rufous in parts of the 

 plumage where no such colour was found in the 

 parents, another instance of reversion to this colour. 



Recently there was bred at Kew a brood of 

 hybrids between a Chilian Yellow-billed Teal drake 

 paired to a duck bred between a Chilian Wigeon 

 (Mareca sibilatrix) on the one hand, and a hybrid 

 between the Madagascar Meller's Duck (Anas 

 melleri) and the African Yellow-billed (A. undulata) ; 

 the result of this mixture being very fairly uniform 

 and exhibiting far more rufous than any of the 

 parents, and a blackish cap and whitish face and 

 throat also found in none of these, and on the 

 whole displaying a reminiscence of an Australasian 

 Tree-Duck (Dendrocycna vagans) ; here again is a 

 probable case of reversion, the Tree-Ducks being 

 a primitive type, un-duck-like in gait, shape, flight, 

 and note, though typical in bilL 



