The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication · Charles Darwin
REFERENCES
Boitard and Corbié (‘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. Corbié “avec une espèce d’obstination;” and likewise by M. Mauduyt, and by M. Vieillot. Temminck also found the hybrids from these two species quite barren. Therefore, when Bechstein (‘Naturgesch. Deutschlands Vögel,’ B. iv. 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 œnas,_ and many eggs were produced, but all were barren. At Paris, hybrids have been raised (Isid. Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, ‘Hist. Nat. Générale,’ tom. iii. p. 180) from _Turtur auritus_ with _T. cambayensis_ and with _T. suratensis_; but nothing is said of their fertility. At the Zoological Gardens of London the _Goura coronata_ and _victoriæ_ produced a hybrid which paired with the pure _G. coronata,_ and laid several eggs, but these proved barren. In 1860 _Columba gymnophthalmos_ and _maculosa_ produced hybrids in these same gardens.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.