Dr. Maurice Amsler—The Hooded Siskin and Canary Hybrid 231


Of these young only one showed the red Siskin parentage in his

nestling plumage—he turned out to be a cock—the mother being a

White. There appears to be two types of F 1 hybrids—the copper-

coloured bird with a black cap and the grey or ashy birds, in which

the cocks again have a black or dark head: the former are of course

much the handsomer.


As my idea was to get F 2 hybrids by using the male Siskin again,

I parted with two of my cocks and obtained females in exchange.

This, as I have found out since, was a very foolish move, for F 1 hens

are always sterile, F 2 usually so, but when one gets to F 3 the chance

of a fertile hen is a good deal greater.


This information was borne out in seven aviaries when I tested the

F 1 hens with one or two cock Canaries—before trying them in cages

with cock Siskins. I did not get a single fertile egg.


Now let us turn to the cock hybrids. There were four—one, whose

colour I forget, went to Mr. Allen Silver and I heard about a month

ago that he had an F 2 hybrid “ on the sticks 55 from a mating of

this bird with a border hen Canary. I hope that by now he has had

further successes. A second bird I gave to a woman bird lover who

had been kind to me, who mated him to a hen Lancashire Canary.

Even with this disparity in size she obtained a chick in the first

nest, which lived to 11 days and which she thinks would have

been reared had she not at the ninth day removed the cock who

was a bit too fussy, upon which the hen threw up the sponge. This

same hen has now a clutch of fertile eggs from which much is

expected.


A very fine dark copper cock I lent to a Canary and hybrid breeder

who put him up with a White border of my own breeding. Two clutches

were clear and the bird was returned to me and turned out into an

aviary with some hen Canaries and several F 1 hens.


About a fortnight ago I found a Buff border hen on two eggs, one

of which was fertile. This egg was put under a hen Canary sitting in

a cage, and the chick, a very dark coloured bird, is now a week old.

The father of this chick is either the above-mentioned copper bird

or else a plain ashy-grey cock who inhabits the same aviary.


These rough experiments have gone to prove that in my strain,



