28 



CANARIES, HYBRIDS, AND BRITISH BIRDS 



have thus a sexual pecuharity in Cochins 

 just as in cinnamon Canaries (c/. " Men- 

 (leHan Inheritance." p. .'$1). 



5. Cochins arc also j)cculiarly subject to 

 visual defects, like albino birds. " The eye 



CRESTBRED CANARY. 



sliould be red. ... In all cases of blind- 

 ness pearl-eyed birds " (a further stage 

 of albinism) " have been the suiTerers " 

 (Tegetmeier). This pearl eye is said to be 

 " very hereditary " in Cochins (Wright's 

 " Poultry Book," 1902). C. B. Daven- 

 port, in " Inheritance in Poultry," quoting 

 McGrew (1904, p. ,526). mentions the Bufi 

 Cochin as probably the oldest Chinese 

 variety, and cites records of the oldest 

 monastery — Hoangho — to the efTect that 

 tliis fowl was cultivated by the l)rother- 

 hodd L.'jOO years ago. 



l'"r()m the same author a very important 

 confirmation of our theory is obtained. 

 Referring to the indigenous Buff Cocliin 

 of China, a traveller says that " no two can 

 be foimd of exactly the same c()l(iiii' : 

 some are a chestnut colour, others darker, 

 and some quite light" (McCirew, ]!»()1, 

 p. 527). With regard to the UnW Cochins 

 first imported into iMigland. Wriglit agrees 

 with Tegetmeier in saying that the colour 

 varied from lightest silver bufT and silver 

 cinnamon, through lemons and bull's, to 

 the deepest coloured cinnamons. 



Thus we have in the Cochin the same 

 variability that we have seen to occur in 

 our cinnamon sports and hybrids, and we 

 can understand how Gallus hankiva, through 



a cinnamon sport, might be the ancestor 

 of all our present varieties without the aid 

 of a separate ancestor for the Aseel-Malay 

 Group, as invoked by Davenport. We 

 have, moreover, evidence of the sporting 

 tendency in Bankiva, for Darwin, quot- 

 ing Mr. Blyth, says that the species varies 

 considerably in the wild state, some from 

 near the Himalaya being paler coloured 

 than those from otlier parts of India.* 



An interesting point also in connection 

 with this cinnamon sport origin of all our 

 domestic varieties (which sport occurs, as 

 we have shown, from the female side) is 

 the following statement by Blumenbach, 

 1813 (given by Tegetmeier) : — " What we 

 have observed above concerning the aberra- 

 tions of the formative nisus -namely, that 

 it occurs less frequently in animals of the 

 male sex than in females — is confirmed 

 by the examples of this variety of poultry, 

 distinguished by the protuberance on the 

 head ; for of this deformity very slight 

 traces indeed are found in the cocks, and 

 those but seldom." 



Darwin supports Blumenbach in his 

 statement that this protuberance, with 

 its accompanying crest, was originally 

 confined to the female sex (loc. cil., p. 270). 



.Since wi'iling the aliovc. ^Ir. I.ewcr has 



sent me a most interesting article on " The 



Origin of Our Breeds of 



Corroborative p„„it.ry," by Henrv Scher- 



Evidence. ; -^ ' . , 



ren, F.Z.S.. IVI.B.O.l .. wlueh 



appeared in The Fcatherid World for 

 October 1 Ith, 1907 (with coloured plate). 



•I)ar«in, " Tlie Variation of Animals and Plants 

 under Domestication," 1875, Vol. I., p. 217. 



