46 



INHERITANCE. 



Chap. XIII. 



known of this latter bird having escaped and become wild 

 Europe or Asia, except, according to Pallas, on the C 



in 



aspian 



Sea ; and the common domestic duck only occasionally becomes 

 wild in districts where large lakes and fens abound. Never- 

 theless, a large number of cases have been recorded u of hybrids 

 from these two ducks, although so few are reared in comparison 

 with purely-bred birds of either species, having been shot 



in 



a completely wild state. It is improbable that any of these 

 hybrids could have acquired their wildness from the musk-duck 

 having paired with a truly wild duck ; and this is known not 

 to be the case in North America; hence we must infer that 

 they have reacquired, through reversion, their wildness, as well 

 as renewed powers of flight. 



These latter facts remind us of the statements, so frequently 

 made by travellers in all parts of the world, on the degraded 

 state and savage disposition of crossed races of man. That manv 

 excellent and kind-hearted mulattos have existed no one will 

 dispute ; and a more mild and gentle set of men could hardly 

 be found than the inhabitants of the island of Chiloe, who consist 

 of Indians commingled with Spaniards in various proportions. 

 On the other hand, many years ago, long before I had thought 

 of the present subject, I was struck with the fact that, in South 

 America, men of complicated descent between Negroes, Indians, 

 and Spaniards, seldom had, whatever the cause might be, a good 

 expression. 45 Livingstone, — and a more unimpeachable authority 

 cannot be quoted, — after speaking of a half-caste man on the 

 Zambesi, described . by the Portuguese as a rare monster of 

 inhumanity, remarks, "It is unaccountable why half-castes, 

 such as he, are so much more cruel than the Portuguese, 

 but such is undoubtedly the case." An inhabitant remarked 

 to Livingstone, " God made white men, and God made black 

 men, but the Devil made half-castes." 46 When two races, both 



44 M. E. de Selys-Longchamps refers (« Ornitholog. Biography,' vol. iii. p. 

 (' Bulletin Acad. Boy. de. Bruxelles,' 168), speaking of these hybrids, says 

 torn. xii. No. 10) to more than seven of that, in North America, they "now 

 these hybrids shot in Switzerland and and then wander off and become quite 

 France. M. Deby asserts (' Zoologist,' wild." 

 vol. v., 1815-46, p. 1254) that several 

 have been shot in various parts of 

 Belgium and Northern France. Audubon 



45 ' Journal of Besearches,' 1845, p. 7 J- 

 Expedition to the Zambesi,' 1865, 



46 ( 



pp. 25, 150. 



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