Note 5 — Chapter IV · HYBRIDISM

After years of observation of these Indian geese, Finn is convinced they are now, at all events, pure Chinese; it is possible that they really were hybrids in Blyth’s time, but that fresh importations of geese from China, such as still occur, may have ultimately swamped the blood of the common goose. The fertility of the hybrid geese was, however, known to such early writers as Pallas and Linnæus. Darwin himself, at a later date, bred five young from a pair of such hybrids (Nature, Jan. 1, 1880, p. 207).