230 Dr. Maurice Amsler—The Hooded Siskin and Canary Hybrid


individuals of inherent hardiness they are difficult to acclimatize for

the first year or so.


As is well known, a certain faction of the Canary fancy is aiming

at a Red Canary, and to this end have introduced the red factor by

means of the male Hooded Siskin.


I believe that the Canary they use when obtainable is the recessive

White, which is only in the hands of one or two breeders up to the

present. The bulk, if not the whole of the White Canaries on the

market, is of the dominant type—that is birds which if mated to normal

Canaries produce White offspring, recessive under the same conditions

produce normally coloured young.


These details did not interest me greatly, but what did give me

food for thought was the discovery that some of these hybrids were

fertile. As is well known, hybrids between the Canary and other

Finches such as the Linnet, Goldfinch, etc., are sterile, although out of

the thousands bred in the past one or twm have been stated to be

fertile.


The Hooded Siskin, as I have already said, is a delicate bird, and

the number of successful nestings in this country, at any rate, have

been very few. Although frequently imported for many years it

was first bred by me here in 1912.


For the non-initiated it may be explained that the first cross, say

between a Canary and Siskin, is called F 1, the next cross either way

F 2, and so on.


I argued that if I could get some fertile F 1 hybrids I might get

some F 2 the next year, using the male Siskin each year—and F 3 the

following year—thus I might evolve, if I lived long enough, an almost

pure strain of Hooded Siskins which might be much hardier and better

breeders than the true species.


With this end in view I mated two cock Siskins with four border

hens last year and two of the latter were Whites and two were Yellows.

One of the hens did no good, but from the other three I obtained ten

hybrids, four cocks and six hens.


This may sound good going, but a fancier abroad in 1933 bred,

I believe, over forty young from one Siskin and a number of hen

Canaries.



