No. 645] 



HYBRIDS OF THE CANARY 



323 



(1908), and Galloway (1909). According to these au- 

 thors, the hybrids between the yellow canary and the 

 European goldfinch may be: (a) completely dark, {b) 

 mottled (spotted), exhibiting an apparently endless 

 variation in color pattern, or (c) entirely white or yellow 

 (very rarely ).2 



The streaking in the dark plumage of canary-Euro- 

 pean goldfinch hybrids has been variously explained as : 

 {a) "derived from the original wild canary" (Danvin, 

 1885, II, p. 15); (h) as reversion to the Serin finch, 

 Serinus hortulanus Koch (Klatt, 1901, p. 508) ; and (c) 

 as resulting from the latent streaking (visible in the 

 ''green" variety of the domesticated canary) factor of 

 the yellow canary, plus the color factor of the European 

 goldfinch (Davenport, 1908, p. 20). 



In 1914 the writer made several attempts to cross the 

 domesticated canar^^ with some of our native American 

 finches, and some of the latter among themselves, since 

 such crosses, if made, seem to have never been recorded. 

 None of these experiments were successful. The work 

 was again taken up in the fall of 1918, and this second 

 attempt yielded several hybrids in 1919 and 1920. For 

 these latter experiments the writer had at his disposal 

 22 wild finches belonging to the following species: Ar- 

 kansas goldfinch {AstragaJinus psaUria hesperophilus 

 Oberholser), willow goldfincli [AstragaUnus tristis sali- 

 camans [Grinnell] ),■' California linnet [Carpodacus 

 mexicanus frontalis [Say]), and California purple finch 

 {Carpodacus purpureus calif amicus Baird). Of these 

 22 wild finches, 5 were reared from eggs placed under 



2 Galloway (1909, p. 4), who has probably reared more nary -finch hy- 



gold-finch hybrids: (l)^dark plumage (with no white or dear f.athers), 172 ; 

 (2) slightly variegated (a few small white or .'!ear spots in an othc^^^^8e 

 dark plumage), 74; (3) variegated (1/4 to 1/2 clear), 75; (4) Ughtly 



19; aid (5) completely dear (total absence of dark feathers), 0. 



3 A western sub-species of the American goldfinch (AstragaMnus tristi* 

 tristis Linnaeus), popularly known as the "wild canary." 



