34 INHERITANCE; IN POULTRY. 



feet of numerous races, e.g., Black Cochins, Black Wyandottes, Black Java, 

 Black Leghorn, Black Minorca, White-faced Black Spanish, Hamburgh, the 

 French fowl, black and dark-colored Games, and the Silky. By decrease of 

 pigment are derived the white feet of the Dorkings and Houdans. This 

 loss of pigment may be regarded as a mutation. It is associated with red 

 or yellow eyes. 



Considering the Aseel type and the bankiva type as specifically distinct, 

 the cross of the yellow foot and the blue-black foot in the present series is 

 a cross between specific characteristics. 



7. FOOT FEATHERING. In Gall us bankiva and in the Aseel-Malay group 

 the feet are without boots. The same is true of the Game fowl, although 

 minute feathers are sometimes found on their feet. Foot feathering is 

 found among various species of birds ; among scratching birds, in grouse, 

 ptarmigans (Tctrco, Bmasia, Lagopus), among some pigeons, and the owls. 

 Typically absent from the Gallinae, it has cropped out in the Brahma, Cochin, 

 and, probably independently, in the Silky and Sultan. In these groups it 

 has been preserved because of its importance in brooding or because it has 

 struck the fancier's eye. 



8. VULTURE HOCK. This consists of long stiff quill feathers projecting 

 backward at the heel joint. It is found among poultry only in the Cochin- 

 Brahma group and its derivatives. This characteristic is a good example of 

 a progressive variation. 



MATERIAL. 



The cock used in this cross, No. 122 (fig. 19), was a bantam Dark Brahma, 

 weighing 1,900 grams, received (February, 1905) from F. H. Hodges,* 

 Red Bank, New Jersey, who is a successful breeder of this variety. The 

 cock is typical of his kind. 



The hens were four Single-comb Black Minorcas, Nos. 14 (fig. 3), 16, r8, 

 and 28, of which the three former were purchased of Mr. George C. Ely in 

 July, 1904, and No. 28 was hatched at the station in August, 1904, from 

 one of the purchased hens mated with the full-blooded Minorca cock No. 12. 



RESULTS. 



Only the first generation of hybrids has been reared up to the time of 

 writing. 



i. GENERAL PLUMAGE COLOR. In all cases (41) the hybrids are prevail- 

 ingly black. Usually the feathers of the occiput and nape are laced with 

 white, much more in the males than in the females, and the hackles of the 

 male are obscurely barred or splashed with white (fig. 21). Evidently the 

 white lacing of the Dark Brahma is trying to assert itself. The color of the 

 wing coverts is considered in the next paragraph. The down of the young 



* Foot marked " F. H. H., 164." 



