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3. On some Hybrid Ducks bred in the Society's Gardens. 

 By Philip Lijtley Sclater, M.A., Secretary to the 

 Society. 



(Aves, PI. CLVIII.) 



I have the pleasure of exhibiting Mr. Wolf's drawing of both sexes 

 of a Hybrid Duck bred this season in the Society's Gardens, between 

 a male of the Common Shieldrake (Tadorna vulpanser) and a female 

 of the White-fronted Shieldrake or Mountain Goose of Southern 

 Africa {Casarca cand). The old female Casarca was acquired by 

 the Society at the sale of the late Lord Derby's collection in 1851. 

 She has on three previous occasions bred in the Gardens : in the 

 first instance with an Indian male of the Ruddy Shieldrake {Casarca 

 rutila), and subsequently twice with one of the male hybrids pro- 

 duced by her union with the Ruddy Shieldrake. 



Upon being placed this spring in a small pond in company with 

 a pair of the Common Shieldrake, she so persecuted the male with 

 her attentions that she succeeded in persuading him to tread her, 

 though in the society of his proper mate. The result was that she 

 laid fertile eggs, and hatched and successfully reared three strong 

 hybrid birds (PI. CLVIII.), two of which appear to be males, and one , 

 a female. They present a curious combination of the colours of the 

 two parents, though the dusky-grey flanks seem scarcely deducible 

 from either. The female has the bill black ; in the male it is flesh- 

 coloured at the base, as in the male parent. The female also takes 

 rather after her mother's likeness, in possessing white round the beak 

 and round the eye. The black hood in both sexes is derived from 

 the male parent. 



In the Gardens this year we have also bred two other broods of 

 Hybrid Ducks. One of these was the produce of a male Dusky 

 Duck {Anas obscura), and a cross-bred female between the Dusky 

 Duck and the Wild Duck. The other was the issue, as we believe, 

 of parents themselves both cross-bred, and both originating from 

 hybridism between the Tufted Duck {Fuligula cristata) and the 

 White-eyed {Nyroca leucophthalma) . But, as there is a male pure- 

 bred White-eyed Duck in the same pond, we cannot be quite certain 

 on this point. 



During the next season we hope to take such measures as will put 

 to test in the case of the Anatidce, a favourite dictum of naturalists, 

 and one which has recently met the approval of a high authority * 

 upon such matters, that " it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to bring 

 forward one case of the hybrid offspring of two animals clearly 

 distinct being themselves perfectly fertile." 



* Darwin, " On the Origin of Species," p. 26. 



