338 



A HISTORY OF BIRDS 



specially to be noted the two black bars in the wings, white 

 rump and black-barred tail. 



Reversion of this kind seems to occur commonly where 

 birds of remotely related races are mated. This, as Mr. Vernon 

 has suggested in his work Variation in Animals, is possibly due 

 to the fact that the characters built up by artificial selection, 

 and superimposed upon the ancestral characters, are, in such 

 cases of reversion, too violently antagonistic to blend, and by this 



III. 32. — Red Game Cockerel 



failure to combine allow the underlying ancestral characters to 

 re-assert themselves. 



From the Wild Jungle-fowl {Gallus bankiva) man has suc- 

 ceeded in building up a large number of domesticated varieties 

 which, both in size, shape and coloration differ enormously one 

 from another, and from the original, ancestral stock. Take, 

 for example, such breeds as Plymouth-rocks, Wyandottes, 

 Cochin-Chinas, Minorcas, Hamburgs, Spanish, Polish and 

 Silkies, Game-fowls and Bantams. Here are black, white 



