. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. . HYBRID BIRDS. I.—By Frank Finn, , THE lover of birds may congratulate himself on the fact that his favourite class of animals has supplied more information to the student of the fascinating and dim cult problems of hybridism than any other, birds being themselves more prone to hybridism than other creatures, and having been studied by so many observers both in the wild state and in confinement. Wild hybrids are indeed rare, but they are of much more frequent occurrence than is generally supposed. They are most n
. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. . HYBRID BIRDS. I.—By Frank Finn, , THE lover of birds may congratulate himself on the fact that his favourite class of animals has supplied more information to the student of the fascinating and dim cult problems of hybridism than any other, birds being themselves more prone to hybridism than other creatures, and having been studied by so many observers both in the wild state and in confinement. Wild hybrids are indeed rare, but they are of much more frequent occurrence than is generally supposed. They are most numerous among the species of the Grouse family; the cross between the Blackcock (Lyrurus tetrix) and the Capercailzie (Tetrao urogallus) occurs every year, and has even received a special name (Rakkelhane) from Scandinavian sportsmen. Many instances of crosses between the Blackcock and Bed Grouse (Lagopus scoticus) have also been recorded; but, curiously enough, the latter bird and the Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus), although so much more nearly related, appear never to interbreed. Various other grouse crosses have occurred, but for variety of hybrids -the Grouse must give place to the Ducks. In this family at least two dozen distinct crosses have been observed, some of them several times, such as those between the Mallard (Anas boscas) and Pintail (Dafila acuta) and between the Smew (Mergus albellus) and Golden-Eye (Clangula glaucion). Wild hybrids between the small birds are much rarer, but several cases of the interbreeding of the Linnet and the Goldfinch witb the Greenfinch are known. Generally speaking there is, however, little wild hybridism outside the game-birds and waterfowl, with the exception of a special class of cases now to be noticed. This is when two species differing practically only in colour, as opposed to those I have mentioned above, where the form and size are also distinct, come into contact locally. In cases like these a great deal of interbreeding takes pl
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