COURTSHIP OF DUCKS AND NOTES ON HYBRIDS. 701 
ducks very different in size, because a White-eyed Pochard is 
less than half the size of a Pintail. Both these hybrids, 
which I believe to be unique, have reached maturity, but, 
being late-hatched, have not yet assumed full winter plumage, 
so that I cannot yet say what they will be like, though their 
parentage is now perfectly obvious." This cross was also very 
curious owing to the fact that both Pintail drake and White- 
eyed duck were apparently paired to their own proper duck 
and drake respectively, although I must allow that I had 
noticed the White-eyed drake making overtures to the Pintail 
duck in spite of the fact that she had long ceased nesting, and 
was in moult. I wonder if his outraged wife sought a deep 
revenge on his faithlessness by mating with the Pintail drake. 
I once possessed a female hybrid between a Mallard and a 
Pochard duck. This bird was sterile, although for two con- 
secutive years she voluntarily mated with a Baikal Teal drake ; 
none of her eggs, however, proved fertile, which was perhaps 
fortunate. 
Hybrids have been obtained between Carolina and Mallard, 
Carolina and Wigeon, Baikal Teal and Versicolor Teal, and 
numerous others. 
Curious and unexpected love affairs between birds of vastly 
different species sometimes occur. I have, for example, an old 
Muscovy duck who annually mates with a black South African 
black spur-winged gander ; but the most amusing example 
that has come under my notice was that of a Mandarin drake 
who fell in love with an Egyptian goose. For two years he 
never left her ; and when, in the spring, she was nesting, 
he would stand on her back and display. She was fickle, and 
one day fell upon and slew him. 
*One of these hybrids can uow (August, 1914) he seen at the Zoological 
Gardens, Loudou.—H. W. 
