A Modified Method of Artificial Insemination in the Production of Chicken-Quail Hybrids

NATURAL barriers, as proposed by Dobzhansky (1951) and Riley (1952), have effectively isolated most species and prevented mating, so that although numerous hybrids from natural mating have been reported (Gray, 1958) other hybrids have resulted only when man has affected mating by artificial techniques. Among the latter is the cross between the chicken and the Japanese quail, recently reported by Wilcox and Clark (1961). This paper reports on fertility and hatchability results from artificial crossing of the red jungle fowl (Gallus bankiva) with the Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica), and on some factors involved in the production of such hybrids. Birds used in the experiments were Japanese quail and the red jungle fowl. The quail, hatched in the fall of 1959, and the jungle fowl, hatched in the spring of 1959, were brooded in insulated quarters and transferred at six weeks of age to specially constructed cages…