APPENDIX. 
461 
Belfast, the distinguished naturalist, who assured Mr. Wm. Sinclaire that 
the male bird bred with one of his tame ducks, adding, that the progeny 
at once marked their descent. 
Muscovy Luck {Anas moschata ), male, and Tame Buck , female, 
have often at the Balls produced hybrids, which were considered excel- 
lent for the table. A gentleman, long resident in Virginia, informs us 
that such hybrids are bred to a considerable extent there, and in 
other of the United States, for food. 
Pintail {A. acuta), male, and Wild Luck , female. — Mr. R. Ball 
remarks that “ a hybrid, produced between the male pintail and wild 
duck, in the gardens of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, is a 
bird of much beauty. It is in its third or fourth year (1846), and is 
rather wild, seldom coming near to any person. This bird occasionally 
disappears for months at a time, but where, or how it goes, is not 
known, as it has never been seen to fly.” 
Wild Luck {A. boschas), male, and Pintail , female. — Birds have been 
so bred in the Zoological Gardens, Phoenix Park, Dublin. A male of 
these hybrids has annually paired with a wild duck, but no produce 
has been known. This hybrid flies much about, and while hundreds of 
other ducks have been shot by persons in the neighbourhood, he has 
hitherto, for a number of years, escaped (December 1850). 
Mr. Yarrell, in his ‘British Birds,’ has noticed a number of hybrid 
Anatidce under the respective species, and Mr. Bartlett has given, in 
the ‘ Annals of Nat. Hist.’ (vol. xix. p. 424), a list of those known to 
have been produced ; but the fullest information I have seen, is con- 
tained in a memoir by Baron De Selys-Longchamps, specially on the 
subject, towards which some of the preceding matter was contributed 
by Mr. Ball and myself. There is no date of publication to the copy 
of this memoir sent to me by the author, but it appeared subsequent to 
the autumn of 1845, when the Baron visited Ireland. It is marked as 
published in vol. xii. (No. 10) of the “Bulletins” of the Royal Aca- 
demy of Brussels. 
With respect to the most important point connected with hybrids, 
— viz., how far they are prolific among themselves, or in connexion 
with genuine species, — I am in possession of very little original infor- 
mation. This is an important subject in reference to the permanence 
of species, and one to which sufficient attention has not hitherto been 
properly directed. Contributions towards it} that I remember to 
