Chap. VI. 



THEIR PARENTAGE. 



193 



are crossed with pigeons of any other breed, the mongrels are 

 extremely fertile and hardy. MM. Boitard and Corbie 21 affirm, 

 after their great experience, that with crossed pigeons the more 

 distinct the breeds, the more productive are their mongrel 

 offspring. I admit that the doctrine first broached by Pallas 

 is highly probable, if not actually proved, namely, that closely 

 allied species, which in a state of nature or when first captured 

 would have been in some degree sterile when crossed, lose this 

 sterility after a long course of domestication ; yet when we con- 

 sider the great difference between such races as pouters, carriers, 

 runts, fantails, turbits, tumblers, &c, the fact of their perfect, 

 or even increased, fertility when intercrossed in the most com- 

 plicated manner becomes a strong argument in favour of their 

 having all descended from a single species. This argument is 

 rendered much stronger when we hear (I append in a note 22 





21 < Les Pigeons,' &c, p. 35. 



22 Domestic pigeons pair readily with 

 the allied G. oenas (Beehstein, ' Natur- 

 gesch. Deutschlands,' B. iv. s. 3) ; and 

 Mr. Brent has made the same cross 

 several times in England, but the 

 young were very apt to die at about 

 ten days old; one hybrid which he 

 reared (from C. oenas and a male 

 Antwerp carrier) paired with a dragon, 

 but never laid eggs. Beehstein further 

 states (s. 26) that the domestic pigeon 

 will cross with C. palumbus, Turtur 

 risoria, and T. vulgaris, but nothing is 

 said of the fertility of the hybrids, and 

 this would have been mentioned had the 

 fact been ascertained. In the Zoolo- 

 gical Gardens (MS. report to me from 

 Mr. James Hunt) a male hybrid from 

 Turtur vulgaris and a domestic pigeon 

 "paired with several different species 

 of pigeons and doves, but none of the 

 eggs were good." Hybrids from C. 

 oenas and gymnophthalmos were sterile. 

 In Loudon's ' Mag. of Nat. Hist.' vol. 

 vii. 1834, p. 154, it is said that a male 

 hybrid (from Turtur vulgaris male, and 

 the cream-coloured T. risoria female) 

 paired during two years with a female 

 T. risoria, and the latter laid many 

 eggs, but all were sterile. MM. Boi- 

 tard and Corbie (' Les Pigeons,' p. 235) 



VOL. I. 



state that the hybrids from these two 

 turtle-doves are invariably sterile both 

 inter se and with either pure parent. 

 The experiment was tried by M. Corbie' 

 "avec une espece d'obstination ;" and 

 likewise by M. Manduyt, and by M. 

 Vieillot. Temminck also found the 

 hybrids from these two species quite 

 barren. Therefore, when Beehstein 

 (' Naturgesch. Vogel. Deutschlands,' B. 

 4, s. 101) asserts that the hybrids from 

 these two turtle-doves propagate inter 

 se equally well with pure species, and 

 when a writer in the 'Field' news- 

 paper (in a letter dated Nov. 10th, 1858) 

 makes a similar assertion, it would ap- 

 pear that there must be some mistake ; 

 though what the mistake is I know not, 

 as Beehstein at least must have known 

 the white variety of T. risoria : it would 

 be an unparalleled fact if the same two 

 species sometimes produced extremely 

 fertile, and sometimes extremely barren, 

 offspring. In the MS. report from the 

 Zoological Gardens it is said that 

 hybrids from Turtur vulgaris and sura- 

 tensis, and from T. vulgaris and Edo- 

 pistes migratorius, were sterile. Two 

 of the latter male hybrids paired with 

 their pure parents, viz. Turtur vulgaris 

 and the Ectopistes, and likewise with 

 T. risoria and with Columba oenas, and 



O 



