COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 
297 
It is singular that the domestic Duck alone has 
adopted polygamy while in confinement. It is true that 
occasionally we find the tame Pigeon, contrary to its 
habits in its natural state, doing something similar, that 
is to say, that a cock Pigeon will divide his attentions 
between different hens. I look upon this rather as a 
pendant to the faithlessness of the Redlegged Partridge, 
and, if it is really a fact, only as an excess of politeness 
exhibited towards the fair—I mean female—sex. 
For the rest, however much confinement may alter 
the habits, ways, and mode of life, among animals, and 
although compulsory unions between different species are 
often productive of mules or bastard kinds; yet, in a 
state of nature, with but few exceptions, those birds 
only pair together where the individuals are closely 
allied. We call these subspecies, in German, “ Gat- 
tungen,” because they will pair,* although the same 
expression is also used to signify a group. On shooting 
two birds thus paired they will invariably be found to 
belong to very closely allied species. 
This is the accepted rule, though, as before mentioned, 
subject to individual exceptions. It happens, occasionally, 
that two different species pair together, when living in a 
state of nature, and produce mules. As yet, this has been 
proved to have occurred with but very few species, and 
in such cases, only, between species who either live in a 
state of polygamy, or are endowed with a strong desire 
to propagate,—or those very closely allied to each other. 
At one time the bastard Black Grouse (Tetrao medius ) was 
considered a good species; now, however, it has been 
found to be the produce of a cross between the Black 
Cock and the female Capercallie, both birds having been 
* German : “ Gatten.”— W. J. 
