126 



GOOD FROM CROSSING. 



Chap. XVII. 



notice that, when large size is one of the desired characters, as with 

 pouters, 34 the evil effects of close interbreeding are much sooner perceived 

 than when small birds, such as short-faced tumblers, are valued. The 

 extreme delicacy of the high fancy breeds, such as these tumblers and 

 improved English carriers, is remarkable ; they are liable to many diseases 

 and often die in the egg or during the first moult ; and their eggs have 

 generally to be hatched under foster-mothers. Although these highly- 

 prized birds have invariably been subjected to much close interbreeding 

 yet their extreme delicacy of constitution cannot perhaps be thus fully 

 explained. Mr. Yarrell informed me that Sir J. Sebright continued closely 

 interbreeding some owl-pigeons, until from their extreme sterility he as 

 nearly as possible lost the whole family. Mr. Brent 35 tried to raise a breed 

 of trumpeters, by crossing a common pigeon, and recrossing the daughter, 

 granddaughter, great-granddaughter, and great-great-granddaughter, with 



of trumpeter's 



10 



the same male trumpeter, until he obtained a bird with 

 blood ; but then the experiment failed, for " breeding so close stopped re- 

 production." The experienced Neumeister 36 also asserts that the offspring 

 from dovecotes and various other breeds are " generally very fertile and 

 hardy birds :" so again, MM. Boitard and Corbie, 37 after forty-five years' 

 experience, recommend persons to cross their breeds for amusement ; for, 

 if they fail to make interesting birds, they will succeed under an economical 

 point of view, " as it is found that mongrels are more fertile than pigeons 

 of pure race." 



I will refer only to one other animal, namely, the Hive-bee, because a 

 distinguished entomologist has advanced this as a case of inevitable close 

 interbreeding. As the hive is tenanted by a single female, it might have 

 been thought that her male and female offspring would always have bred 

 together, more especially as bees of different hives are hostile to each 

 other; a strange worker being almost always attacked when trying to 

 enter another hive. __ 



does not apply to drones, which are permitted to enter any hive ; so that 

 there is no a priori improbability of a queen receiving a foreign drone. 

 The fact of the union invariably and necessarily taking place on the wing, 

 during the queen's nuptial flight, seems to be a special provision against 

 continued interbreeding. However this may be, experience has shown, 

 since the introduction of the yellow-banded Ligurian race into Germany 

 and England, that bees freely cross: Mr. Woodbury, who introduced 

 Ligurian bees into Devonshire, found during a single season that three 

 stocks, at distances of from one to two miles from his hives, were crossed 

 by his drones. In one case the Ligurian drones must have flown over the 

 city of Exeter, and over several intermediate hives. On another occasion 

 several common black queens were crossed by Ligurian drones at a distance 

 of from one to three and a half miles. 39 



Mr 



34 ' A Treatise on Fancy Pigeons/ by 

 J. M. Eaton, p. 56. 



35 ' The Pigeon Book, ' p. 46. 



36 ' Das Ganze der Taubenzucht,' 

 1837, s. 18. 



37 ' Les Pigeons,' 1824, p. 35. 



38 'Proc. Entomolog. Soc.,' Aug. 6th, 

 1860, p. 126. 



39 ' Journal of Horticulture,' 1861, pp. 

 39, 77, 158 ; and 1864, p. 206. 



