FITNESS IN WATERFOWL 351 



extinct in half a century, while our Wood-Pigeon 

 is so very common — indeed, too often a common 

 nuisance. 



As far as the Carolina Duck is concerned, it has 

 always struck me that, although sHghtly larger and 

 generally the winner in their contests, it is a less 

 " fit " bird than its Oriental cousin the Mandarin, 

 which is so freely imported from the East that its 

 domestication has never been completed, and is 

 certainly far more active, wiry, and versatile in 

 its habits. Similarly our Greylag Goose is a 

 harder-looking, more active bird than the splendid 

 Canadian Goose, its analogue in the New World, 

 although it does not seem able to stand up to it 

 when it comes to fighting, where mere size in 

 birds of the same habits is apt to tell, as cock- 

 fighters well knew, endeavouring as they did to 

 match birds of approximately the same weight. 



Of Parrots we have only domesticated one 

 Australian species, the Budgerigar, which is already 

 a most formidable rival of the Canary ; I hope 

 in time it will supplant it, for Budgerigars are 

 usually kept in pairs, and the worst infliction in 

 captivity to a bird is the solitary confinement, 

 except in the case of those unsociable species which 

 prefer to be alone, and even they would like a 

 mate when in breeding condition. I have noticed 

 in the case of Pekin Robins, which are not true 

 Robins, but Babblers, and so members of a very 

 sociable group, that a single bird turned out will 

 return to its companion or companions, but that if 



