372 



Observations on Hybrids. 



animal, now exists, which did not come as such immediately 

 from the hand of the Creator. 



Having spoken, in the preceding account, of mule birds, 

 I will take this opportunity of recording a very singular cir- 

 cumstance, which came under my observation, whilst I was 

 engaged in the experiments which I have stated. A person 

 informed me that a farmer, who resided a few miles distant 

 from me, possessed a mule bird, which was bred between 

 the common hen, and the wood-pigeon ; and which my 

 informant had seen, and described with accuracy ; I 

 took, in consequence, the earliest opportunity of seeing the 

 farmer, and the supposed mule bird; because I thought 

 that nature had strictly prohibited the production of mules 

 between species so distinct, and had usually made the death 

 of the female the price of the attempt. The information I 

 obtained was, that the children in his house (his infant bro- 

 thers and sisters), had reared a young wood-pigeon and a 

 motherless chicken together ; that these became much at- 

 tached to each other, and appeared to have paired, the 

 wood-pigeon constantly paying court to the young hen, as 

 he would have done to a female of his own species. The 

 hen subsequently laid eleven eggs, which she sat upon, and 

 produced one offspring, the bird in question. It was wholly 

 without comb, and it had soft turgid nostrils, extremely 

 similar to those of a wood-pigeon ; and the whole profile of 

 its head, exclusive of the point of the beak, bore a most 

 striking resemblance to that of its supposed male parent. 

 It, however, certainly was not the offspring of a wood- 

 pigeon, nor a mule ; for it bred freely. I ought to have pre- 



