2-JO SOME RESULTS OF OSTRICH INVESTIGATIONS. 



the wings and legs have undergone up to the present, as well as 

 the course likely to be followed in the future. Survivals of many 

 ancestral characteristics are to be found among the abundant 

 material now available for study, and indicate that the 42-plumed 

 bird may with good reason be regarded as a survival of a stage 

 when the average number of plumes to the wing was larger than 

 at present. On this interpretation the 36-plumed bird? of to-day 

 are to be considered as degenerate in the number of wing quills, 

 as they are in many other respects. The practical endeavour is 

 II07V being made to build up a pure strain of ostriches bearing 42 

 phones, for zcith the increase of the other rozvs of plumes in 

 correlation ivith the zmng quills, it becomes possible to provide the 

 farmer zmth an ostrich giving about 25 per cent, more plumes 

 than he receives from his birds at present, the " quality points" 

 being also of the highest. The demonstration below that the high 

 number is not merely the extreme of a fluctuating series, but is 

 factorial in its nature, renders this possible. Whether by con- 

 tinual selection the number 42 can be exceeded is doubtful, seeing 

 that the factors for any higher number have probably been 

 altogether lost to the race, even if they were ever present in the 

 ancestral ostrich. 



The table below shows that when the 42-plumed southern 

 cock is mated with various North African hens of the 36-strain, 

 the average number of plumes in the progeny is practically inter- 

 mediate, namely 39.56, the lowest number being 37 and the highest 

 42 ; they do not regress to the general average. The numbers 

 form an approximately normal curve, with the mode at 40. None 

 of the birds hitherto employed as breeders can be deemed " pure "' 

 as regards the number of plumes, and the 42-plumed bird is 

 probably heterozygous like the rest ; hence the fluctuating series 

 represented below : — 



Table 8. — Number of First-rozv Plumes on Cross-bred Chicks 

 from jnating a 42-plumed Southern Cock and 2)^-plumed 

 Jiorthern hens. 



Right Left Right Left 



Wing. Wing. Wing. Wing. 



1. No. 226 42 41 13. No. 311 40 40 



2. No. 228 .... 39 40 14. No. 230 41 40 



3. No. 229 41 42 15. No. 232 39 41 



4. No. 242 40 40 16. No. 233 41 42 



5. No. 243 39 40 17. No. 234 42 40 



6. No. 302 37 38 18. No. 237 40 39 



7. No. 303 • • • • 38 38 19- No. 2^^ .... 39 38 



8. No. 304 40 40 20. No. T 39 38 



9. No. 307 38 38 21. No. 2 39 39 



10. No. 308 40 39 22. No. 3 38 39 



11. No. 309 37 39 23. No. 4 40 41 



12. No. 310 38 39 24. No. 5 41 40 



