90 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



at intervals of from 3 to 8 days, until from 4 to 8 broods appear of from 

 6 to 30 young each. At the last test the individuals of the strain originating 

 in a sensitive mother reacted to light more quickly, and with more uniformity, 

 than did those of the other strain. 



Large vs. Small Feathered Chicks. — Certain strains of chicks have gained 

 large quill feathers at 10 days after hatching, while these feathers are then 

 relatively slight in other strains. A study of crosses between these two strains 

 during two generations warrants the conclusion that well-developed wings 

 and tail at 10 days is a condition recessive to ill-developed, though dominance 

 of the great-feathered condition is by no means complete. (Goodale.) 



Plumage Coloration in Ducks. — Data are being collected on inheritance of 

 various white spots and "plain" head, black, heterochromidia, irides, red 

 breast in the male, and spotting, not white. (Goodale.) 



Hybridisation of Butterflies. — Prof. John H. Gerould, of Dartmouth Col- 

 lege, is continuing his experiments in hybridizing butterflies in association 

 with this department. He reports that his attempts to hybridize Papilios 

 were checked by certain technical difficulties but that he was quite successful 

 in getting hybrids between two species of the cabbage butterfly, Colias, and 

 he has fertile eggs laid by the hybrids. 



STUDIES IN HUMAN HEREDITY 



Through the continued support of Mrs. E. H. Harriman, to which has 

 been added during the past year that of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, your 

 Director has been put in a position not only to continue the work of the 

 Eugenics Record Office, with its loyal staff, but to bring several of its studies 

 to publication. Two of these deal with the detailed history of the matings 

 and progeny of "degenerate" rural communities. They have important social 

 bearings, and, from the scientific point of view, test the theory of inherit- 

 ance of "feeble-mindedness," epilepsy, "shyness," indolence, and lack of self- 

 control in the sex sphere. They discuss the relative role of "blood" and 

 culture in such communities, using three criteria: (1) a comparison of the 

 sets of children from two successive consorts of one parent; (2) a com- 

 parison of the behavior in later life of sibs who have been "placed out" or 

 adopted in good homes with those who have remained under home culture ; 

 (3) a comparison of the behavior of the descendants of those who have 

 moved to a distant State with cousins who have remained behind. By all 

 these criteria the indelible impress of family traits under whatever conditions 

 of culture is striking. 



To facilitate the work of collecting data and of indexing them at the Eu- 

 genics Record Office, it became necessary to prepare a list of human "traits." 

 This consumed a good deal of time, as apparently nothing of the sort had 

 been attempted before. It will be an easier task to make the improvements 

 and additions that future experience may require. 



