, p. 42. For the turkey I rely
on oral information; I ascertained that they were not Curassows. With
respect to fowls I will give the references in the next chapter.

[334] I have drawn out a long table of the various crosses made by fanciers
between the several domestic breeds, but I do not think it worth
publishing. I have myself made for this special purpose many crosses, and
all were perfectly fertile. I have united in one bird five of the most
distinct races, and with patience I might undoubtedly have thus united all.
The case of five distinct breeds being blended together with unimpaired
fertility is important, because Gaertner has shown that it is a very
general, though not, as he thought, universal rule, that complex crosses
between several species are excessively sterile. I have met with only two
or three cases of reported sterility in the offspring of certain races when
crossed. Von Pistor ('Das Ganze der Feld-taubenzucht,' 1831, s. 15) asserts
that the mongrels from barbs and fantails are sterile: I have proved this
to be erroneous, not only by crossing these hybrids with several other
hybrids of the same parentage, but by the more severe test of pairing
brother and sister hybrids _inter se_, and they were _perfectly_ fertile.
Temminck has stated ('Hist. Nat. Gen. des Pigeons,' tom. i. p. 197) that
the turbit or owl will not cross readily with other breeds: but my turbits
crossed, when left free, with almond tumblers and with trumpeters; the same
thing has occurred (Rev. E. S. Dixon, 'The Dovecot,' p. 107) between
turbits and dovecots and nuns. I have crossed turbits with barbs, as has M.
Boitard (p. 34), who says the hybrids were very fertile. Hybrids from a
turbit and fantail have been known to breed _inter se_ (Riedel,
Taubenzucht, s. 25, and Bechstein, 'Naturgesch. Deutsch.' B. iv. s. 44).
Turbits (Riedel, s. 26) have been crossed with pouters and with jacobins,
and with a hybrid jacobin-trumpeter (Riedel, s. 27). The latter author has,
however, made some vague statements (s. 22) on the sterility of turbits
when crossed with certain other crossed breeds. But I have little doubt
that the Rev. E. S. Dixon's explanation of such statements is correct, viz.
that individual birds both with turbits and other breeds are occasionally
sterile.

[335] 'Das Ganze der Taubenzucht,' s. 18.

[336] 'Les Pigeons,' &c., p. 35.

[337] Domestic pigeons pair readily with the allied _C. oenas_ (Bechstein,
'Naturgesch. Deuts