Chap. XIV. 
PEEFERENCE BY THE FEMALE. 
115 
give only one other case ; Mr. Hewitt states that a wild 
diick^ reared in captivity, after breeding a couple of 
seasons with her own mallard, at once shook him off 
on my placing a mail Pintail on the water. It was 
evidently a case of love at first sight, for she swam 
about the new-comer caressingly, though he appeared 
evidently alarmed and averse to her overtures of 
affection. From that hour she forgot her old partner. 
Winter passed by, and the next spring the Pintail 
seemed to have become a convert to her blandish- 
ments, for they nested and produced seven or eight 
young ones.” 
What the charm may have been in these several 
cases, beyond mere novelty, we cannot even conjecture. 
Colour, however, sometimes comes into play; for in 
order to raise hybrids from the siskin (Fringilla spinus) 
and the canary, it is much the best plan, according to 
Bechstein, to place birds of the same tint together. 
Mr. Jenner Weir turned a female canary into his aviary, 
where there were male linnets, goldfinches, siskins, 
green-finches, chaffinches, and other birds, in order to 
see which she would choose ; but there never was any 
doubt, and the greenfinch carried the day. They paired 
and produced hybrid offspring. 
With the members of the same species the fact of the 
female preferring to pair with one male rather than 
with another is not so likely to excite attention, as 
when this occurs between distinct species. Such cases 
can best be observed with domesticated or confined 
birds ; but tliese are often pampered by high feeding, 
and sometimes have their instincts vitiated to an ex- 
treme degree. Of this latter fact I could give sufficient 
proofs with pigeons, and especially with fowls, but they 
cannot be here related. Vitiated instincts may also 
account for some of the hybrid unions above referred 
I 2 
