436 
Miscellanea 
The exceptional matings will be found at the following pages of my paper : 
Mating (1), page 36, I. 
1904. 1. 
(2) , ., 39, IV 3. 
(3) , „ 39, IV 4. 
(4) , „ 39, IV 4. 
(5) , „ 39, IV 4. 
(6) , „ 39, IV 4. 
1905. 
1908. 1. 
1904-07. 
1906. 
1908. 2. 
Mr Noorduyn will also find the plumage-colour of the canaries and, in all known cases, of 
their parents mentioned — information the absence of which he also regretted. The eye-colour of 
the canaries is also mentioned in every case, and of their parents in every case except one which 
was unknown. 
The matings cited above were for the purpose of testing the inheritance of " pink " as against 
" dark " eye, a difference which can be seen as soon as the egg hatches. A large number of chicks 
die before the plumage appears, so that only those that survived and became fully fledged birds 
are mentioned in the table of hybrids quoted at the Genetics Congress by Mr Noorduyn. Of 
these none showed any appreciable amount of variegation, two only being slightly variegated. 
As a matter of fact all my light hybrids, including the " clear " siskin-canary, figured in my 
paper have been bred from ^ wild bird x $ canary. 
Mr Noorduyn also reported at the Genetics Congress the breeding of a cinnamon hybrid by 
me, and evidently considers it to be a " reversion " to the cinnamon grandmother. With this 
idea, he bred canary hens from cinnamon x yellow parents, supposing that these hens, on 
being mated to wild birds would produce "clear" hybrids. In this he was bitterly disappointed, 
for he bred 27 hybrids all quite dark. 
This experience is fully in accordance with the results given in my table of canary hybrids. 
I am afraid the production of clear hybrids is not quite such a simple matter as a reversion of 
this sort would explain. Otherwise clear hybrids would not be the great and valuable rarities 
that they are at the present day, after the labours of generations of the keenest light hybrid 
breeders. Indeed Mr Noorduyn's belief, that the mating of $ yellow canary to $ goldfinch 
results in most of the hybrids being variegated or lightly variegated, is an old one, as may be 
seen by reference to the earliest — 1709 — edition of Hervieux's "Nouveau Traite des Serins de 
Canarie," p. 241 : — 
" On met ordinairement la femelle de Serin, et le male Chardonnet, Linote, ou autres ; mais 
pour moy je suis pour qu'on mette le contraire ; scavoir, le male Serin, et la femelle Char- 
donnet, Linote, ou autres, parce que le male ordinairement race plus que la femelle; ainsi les 
mulets qui sortiront d'un male Serin seront plus beaux, et chanteront mieux, que s'ils sortoient 
seulement de la femelle." 
Also at page 246 we read : — 
" Vous voyez par cette maniere, que vous avez de beaux mulets a esperer ; car le male Serin, 
qui race pour l'ordinaire plus que la femelle, donera beaucoup de Blancs, et la femelle Chardonn 
donant un peu de ces differentes couleurs feront des mulets d'un prix inestimable.'' 
