chlands,' B. iv. s. 3); and Mr. Brent has made the same
cross several times in England, but the young were very apt to die at about
ten days old; one hybrid which he reared (from _C. oenas_ and a male
Antwerp carrier) paired with a dragon, but never laid eggs. Bechstein
further states (s. 26) that the domestic pigeon will cross with _C.
palumbus_, _Turtur risoria_, and _T. vulgaris_, but nothing is said of the
fertility of the hybrids, and this would have been mentioned had the fact
been ascertained. In the Zoological Gardens (MS. report to me from Mr.
James Hunt) a male hybrid from _Turtur vulgaris_ and a domestic pigeon
"paired with several different species of pigeons and doves, but none of
the eggs were good." Hybrids from _C. oenas_ and _gymnophthalmos_ were
sterile. In Loudon's 'Mag. of Nat. Hist.' vol. vii. 1834, p. 154, it is
said that a male hybrid (from _Turtur vulgaris_ male, and the
cream-coloured _T. risoria_ female) paired during two years with a female
_T. risoria_, and the latter laid many eggs, but all were sterile. MM.
Boitard and Corbie ('Les Pigeons,' p. 235) state that the hybrids from
these two turtle-doves are invariably sterile both _inter se_ and with
either pure parent. The experiment was tried by M. Corbie "avec une espece
d'obstination;" and likewise by M. Manduyt, and by M. Vieillot. Temminck
also found the hybrids from these two species quite barren. Therefore, when
Bechstein ('Naturgesch. Vogel. Deutschlands,' B. 4, s. 101) asserts that
the hybrids from these two turtle-doves propagate _inter se_ equally well
with pure species, and when a writer in the 'Field' newspaper (in a letter
dated Nov. 10th, 1858) makes a similar assertion, it would appear that
there must be some mistake; though what the mistake is I know not, as
Bechstein at least must have known the white _variety_ of _T. risoria_: it
would be an unparalleled fact if the same two species sometimes produced
_extremely_ fertile, and sometimes _extremely_ barren, offspring. In the
MS. report from the Zoological Gardens it is said that hybrids from _Turtur
vulgaris_ and _suratensis_, and from _T. vulgaris_ and _Ectopistes
migratorius_, were sterile. Two of the latter male hybrids paired with
their pure parents, viz. _Turtur vulgaris_ and the Ectopistes, and likewise
with _T. risoria_ and with _Columba oenas_, and many eggs were produced,
but all were barren. At Paris, hybrids have been raised (Isid. Geoffrey
Saint Hilaire, 'Hist. Nat. G