Notes on Hybrid Ploceidcc.



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Spertnestes bicolor x Aidemosyne cantons.


Spermcstes cucullata x Spermcstes nigriceps.


This last is probably the hybrid subsequently bred a second

time by Mr. Todd and which he referred to as a cross between

the Bronze and Rufous-backed Mannikins. As already noted

cucullata lias also hybridized with the Bengalee; the young

again breeding with the Bengalee, in the Contessa Baldelli’s

aviary in Italy.


Spcr?ncstes nana X Aidemosyne malabarica.


Bred by Mr. Setli-Smith as previously noted.


When one considers how many remarkable Ploceid mules

have been bred, it seems strange that so few should hitherto

have been illustrated ; and in the fact that they sometimes

exhibit characters possessed by neither parent and therefore

presumably inherited from some extinct progenitor, it seems

to me far more important that they should be figured, than

that species of birds already sufficiently well known and

accurately delineated should have their portraits duplicated.


In illustrating the Diamond x Zebra-finch I am satisfied

that the Avicultural Society is commencing a work which will

prove to be of considerable scientific interest, and I shall hope¬

fully look forward to the publication from time to time in our

volumes of many more portraits of hybrids in the possession of

our members: should this throw even the least ray of light upon

the origin of existing species, it will be well worth doing.


I feel sure that the less closely related the two parents of a

hybrid may be, the more likely will the latter be to reproduce

long-lost features, or those perchance retained by other de¬

scendants, of a common remote ancestor; but in closely related

species the hybrid may be expected to be simply intermediate in

character.


As evidence of the difficulty of intentionally breeding

Ploceid hybrids, I may refer our members to my paper in the

"‘Avicultural Magazine” for May 1904 (2nd ser., Vol. II., p. 219)

“ On the difficulty of sexing Bicheno’s Finch” in which, after

considerable effort to produce the Bicheno x Zebra-finch hybrid,

I found that both my supposed cock birds were hens; and when



