PEDIGREE OR LINE BREEDING 



203 



tion of the five-toed fowl ; but to any other 

 feature the same reasoning would apply, 

 such as the production of any jiarticular 

 shape, marking, crest, long or short feather, 

 position, or size in a Canary — " all are 

 subject to the same laws, and can be 

 ' fixed ' in the same manner. But it will 

 readily occur to most of our readers that 

 every animal is bred for ynany points, and 

 not solely for one. such as we have been 

 considering, and that here the difficulty 

 in successful breeding begins, and the 

 inexperienced breeder usually finds that, 

 as he attempts to deal with any one point, 

 he is very apt to deteriorate in some other 

 previously attained. 



" The chief reason of this is, that the 

 faults as well as the good points of any 

 parent tend to be perpetuated. When, 

 therefore, it is considered that it is almost 

 impossible to tell when all tendency to 

 revert to the features of any particular 

 animal in a pedigree shall for practical 

 purposes be lost, the complication of the 

 problem becomes apparent. At each step 

 in the process of breeding towards some 

 given point, the parents have to be chosen 

 in reference to it : and in each such case 

 the parents introduce tendencies to pro- 

 duce other points which are not wanted. 

 Nay, not only do they introduce tendencies 

 whicli can be known or surmised, but it 

 will be evident at once that unless their 

 own pedigree and course of breeding are 

 known for generations back, they must 

 introduce tendencies which, not appearing 

 in themselves, are not known. \Vlien, 

 therefore, we consider the changeful and 

 capricious manner in which most amateurs 

 — in the first instance, at all events — con- 

 duct their breeding, often trusting to 

 ]5edigree alone without the necessary quali- 

 fication, and in many instances not giving 

 even that meagre attention to their 

 selections, we shall cease to wonder at the 

 anomalous nature of the results they often 

 obtain, and that they retii-e from breeding 

 in despair before they have learnt that 

 better things are possible, and how they 

 are to be achieved." 



Thus, supposing we are at any time pay- 



ing great attention to obtaining a good 

 crest, and some evident fault in another 

 ])oint appears as a result of 



Attention 

 to Faults. 



the season's breeding, to 



correct this new blemish a 

 cross with another family will, perhaps, be 

 necessary. We then select a bird strong 

 in the point in which our stock fails, and 

 with an exquisite crest, and thus apparently 

 unlikely to interfere with our aim of breed- 

 ing for crest while correcting the other 

 faidt ; yet this new purchase may be the 

 only good-crested bird in a room of inferior 

 crests, and in that case may spoil the pro- 

 geny from the hens paired to him. In 

 such a case the best course is not only to 

 turn him out from the stock, but all the 

 offspring as well, and thus " nip the evil 

 in the bud." There are occasional cases 

 of this kind, but they are very few indeed, 

 as really good birds with well developed 

 points are not likely to have such detri- 

 mental effects ; in fact, the selection of good 

 birds and their influence for good has 

 demonstrated this over and over again. 

 But withal we have a continual battle to 

 wage against points we do not want, 

 and if a breeder can get to know 

 something of the pedigree of any new 

 bird before introducing it to his stock, 

 and thus by careful selection obtain a bird 

 that will " hit " or blend well with his 

 strain, it will assist him to secure the pro- 

 perties aimed at. The necessity for too 

 frequent recourse to such an outcross, 

 with its attendant difficulties, is in large 

 measure obviated by attention to our 

 caution as to starting with a sufficient 

 number of pairs of birds of known charac- 

 teristics at the outset. If several pairs of 

 birds are kept purely for the jiroduction of 

 stock birds from Avhich to draw when 

 occasion arises, the task of maintaining the 

 upkeep of the strain is made easier. 



In breeding there is a tendency in all 



animals, as Darwin clearly showed, to 



revert to apparently long- 



'^'^^ lost character, and this 



Tendency to • i 1 1 1 



Throw BacK. tendency is developed by 



crossing. To make our- 

 selves quite clear, sujiposing two strains 



