248 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [March, 



Cat ; and that a brood of semi-wild hybrids thus produced occasioned him at 

 one time much inconvenience. In connexion with these facts, we cannot but 

 observe the remarkable coincidence of the defective tail of the wild Malayan 

 F, planiceps, and of the domestic Cats of the same countries (vide XV, 245).* 



* Tt is probable that this variation likewise occurs in the very nearly allied, but consi- 

 derably larger, F. Temminckii of the Malayan peninsula, &c. ; from which it does not 

 appear that F. moormeifsis of Nepal and Sikim differs in any respect. I have examined 

 specimens of both, the former from Malacca, the latter from Sikim, but have never had 

 the opportunity of actually comparing them together. 



On the subject of Canine hybrids, there is an interesting paper, as recording some 

 observed facts, in the ' Calcutta Sporting Review' for December 1847 ; but the writer 

 makes a great mistake in supposing that the rufous ' Wild Dog' (so called) of India and 

 the Malay countries— C. rutilus, v. Cuon prinuevus, &c. &c. — has contributed largely 

 to the origin of domestic Dogs, as not a single variety of the latter is known to want 

 the second true molar in the lower jaw, as in the wild species referred to ; and he falls 

 into a still greater error in supposing that the Hyaena could. interbreed with any Canine, 

 its generative organs being on a different type, and the mode of copulation consequently 

 not exhibiting the peculiarity observable in Canis. The dentition, too, is widely dissimilar ; 

 and other important diversities might be enumerated. The affinity of Hyazna is with the 

 Viverrida, and not with the Canidcz. 



Some experiments which I have been trying with the hybrid race produced by the 

 male Gall us Sonneratii and picked common hens, have hitherto led to opposite results to 

 what have followed the intermixture of different Canines. The male hybrid was parti- 

 cularly salacious ; yet though a great number of eggs have been produced by hens 

 trodden by him, of the pure domestic fowl, as well as of his own hybrid race, not a single 

 one has hatched, while other eggs placed with them produced chickens. I am now keep- 

 ing the only remaining hybrid hen with a Burmese domestic cock, but very little 

 removed from the wild bankivus ; and she has already produced some more eggs. 

 In the London Zoological Gardens, some ten years ago, was a brood of f bred 

 birds between the English Pheasant and common Fowl, these being £ Pheasant: and 

 if this be possible, surely two different species of true Gallus ought to produce fertile 

 hybrids, at least with either parent race, if not per se et inter se. While on the 

 subject of hybrids, I may here notice that my friend, C. S. Bonnevie, Esq. of Rungpore, 

 some time ago presented me with a living specimen bred between the male Guinea-fowl 

 and common hen, which is now preserved in the Society's Museum. Two other hybrids 

 thus produced have since been described in the ' Proceedings of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia' for Sept. 29, 1846, p. 101. The Society's bird is 

 almost wholly white, but a few coloured feathers it has show no trace of the Guinea- 

 fowl spots, observable in those described by Dr. Morton : the bill and feet of the speci- 

 men, however, and its voice and carriage when alive, partook very much of the Guinea- 

 fowl : it has no trace of comb, nor of the Guinea-fowl bony knob, and but very slight 

 wattles depending from the angle of the gape. The most curious bird hybrid I have seen 

 was one bred in the Garden of the Zoological Society, between the Chenalopex cegyptiacus 

 and that singular variety of domestic Duck common at Manilla, which is known as the 

 " Penguiu Duck." 



