der Vogelfanger: HYBRIDIZING BIRDS

Abstract

Until recently the reasons for hybridizing
might reasonably have been construed
as "intellectual". Most hybridizers were
interested in crosses for the curiosities
produced, for improving song or color,
or to establish a new kind of bird. Today,
with the scarcity of birds and the resultant
rise in prices, hybridizing can be the
only way out in an effort to maintain a
species for which a mate isn't readily
available. The choice here is to use a
cl.osely related bird in the hope of obtaining
fertile hybrids or to wait until a bird
of the species required is available. In the
latter case, the wait may be indefinite.

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