222 Heredity. 



the efforts of the breeder are directed towards a pecul- 

 iarity of one or the other sex, as wlieii cattle aic reared 

 for I lie sake of their milk, or when fowls are kept for 

 fighting, or for their eggs; but whenever the sexes do 

 d ifer we find that the same law exists, and that the 

 males of allied races differ from each other more 

 than the females. Eegarding sheep, Darwin says that 

 there is a strong tendency for characters which have 

 been acquired under domestication to become attached 

 exclusively to the male sex, or to be much more highly 

 developed in the male than in the female. As illustra- 

 tive of this law he refers, among other instances, to the 

 fact that the accumulation of fat in the fat-tailed sheep 

 of the plains of India is greater in the male than in the 

 female, and the mane of the African maned race is far 

 more developed in the ram than in the ewe. 



Among fowls, every one is familiar with the fact that 

 the males of different breeds are, as a rule, much more 

 different than the females, and that most of the breeds 

 are distinguished from each other by peculiarities in or- 

 gans which, like the comb, spurs, and long tail-feathers, 

 are confined to the male. As a rule there is consider- 

 able difference between the sexes of fowls, but excep- 

 tions are not at all unusual, and in many breeds the 

 sexes can hardly be distinguished. The males and fe- 

 males of the gold and silver laced Sebright bantam can 

 be barely distinguished from each other, except by the 

 comb, wattles, and spurs, for they are colored alike, and 

 the males have not hackles, nor the flowing, sickle-like 

 tail feathers. In one breed of game fowls the males and 

 females are said to resemble each other so closely that 

 the cocks have often mistaken their hen-feathered op- 

 ponents in the cock-pit for real hens, and have lost their 

 lives by the mistake, for although the cock is dressed in 



