Fertile Hybrids 
bred znter se. This was effected by Mr Eyton, 
who raised two hybrids from the same parents 
but from different hatches; and from these two 
birds he raised no less than eight hybrids (grand- 
children of the pure geese) from one nest. In 
India, however, these cross-bred geese must 
be far more fertile; for I am assured by two 
eminently capable judges, namely, Mr Blyth and 
Captain Hutton, that whole flocks of these 
crossed geese are kept in various parts of the 
country ; and as they are kept for profit, where 
neither pure parent species exists, they must 
certainly be highly fertile... . So again there 
is reason to believe that our European and the 
humped Indian cattle are quite fertile together ; 
and from facts communicated to me by Mr 
Blyth, I think they must be considered as 
distinct species.” 
Darwin does not seem to have been very 
satisfied with the evidence he had collected, for 
he said: “ Finally, looking to all the ascertained 
facts on the intercrossing of plants and animals, 
it may be concluded that some degree of sterility, 
1 After years of observation of these Indian geese, Finn is 
convinced they are now, at all events, pure Chinese ; it is possible 
that they really were hybrids in Blyth’s time, but that fresh im- 
portations of geese from China, such as still occur, may have 
ultimately swamped the blood of the common goose. The fertility 
of the hybrid geese was, however, known to such early writers as 
Pallas and Linnzus. Darwin himself, at a later date, bred 
five young from a pair of such hybrids (WVa¢ure, Jan. 1, 1880, 
p. 207). 
115 
