The Descent of Man

The Rev. W.D. Fox informs me that he possessed
at the same time a pair of Chinese geese
(Anser cygnoides), and a common gander with
three geese. The two lots kept quite separate,
until the Chinese gander seduced one of the
common geese to live with him. Moreover, of
the young birds hatched from the eggs of the
common geese, only four were pure, the other
eighteen proving hybrids; so that the Chinese
gander seems to have had prepotent charms
over the common gander. I will give only one
other case; Mr. Hewitt states that a wild duck,
reared in captivity, "after breeding a couple of
seasons with her own mallard, at once shook
him off on my placing a male Pintail on the
water. It was evidently a case of love at first
sight, for she swam about the new-comer caressingly,
though he appeared evidently alarmed
and averse to her overtures of affection. From
that hour she forgot her old partner. Winter
passed by, and the next spring the pintail seemed
to have become a convert to her blan-