OBSCURE INFLUENCES IN BREEDING. 



197 



after separation, ana set a month after laying, 

 none were actually hatched ; but five even of 

 these were fertile, and lived in the shell till 

 about the ninth day. 



In regard to change of parentage, results 

 give similar discrepancies with what we have 

 stated as the general rule. Two Spanish pullets 

 having been running with a Spanish and a 

 Cochin cock, no eggs were saved till six weeks 

 after separation of the Cochin ; yet the chicks 

 had still feather on the legs. A Brahma hen 

 taken from her mate and put with a Hamburgh, 

 bred pure Brahmas for ten days, then half-breds. 

 We have other cases wherein the former parent- 

 age has been manifest for from one to three 

 months. There is no reason why such anomalies 

 should surprise us, when we consider how sus- 

 ceptible the reproductive system is of modifica- 

 tion ; so that, for instance, one breed may lose 

 the instinct of incubation, whilst another 

 develops it in extraordinary degree. We know 

 that one visit to a turkey-gobbler fertilises the 

 whole batch of eggs laid by a hen turkey ; and 

 after beginning to lay she, as a rule, avoids the 

 male bird. The hen does not so avoid him ; 

 and the inference is that his company is more 

 or less necessary. When, therefore, we duly 

 remember that we have multiplied natural egg- 

 production tenfold, we need not wonder that 

 there should be no uniform rule about these 

 phenomena. Differences may depend upon the 

 breed, the vigour of the male, the number of 

 hens with him, and the period or stage of her 

 " batch of eggs " at which union or separation 

 takes place, as also upon the dcfiniteness in 

 number of such a batch or laying of eggs, which 

 is more defined in most Game fowls than in the 

 forced laying breeds. On the whole, however, 

 from three to five eggs, or a week in time, will 

 generally be sufficient to ensure the parentage 

 for practical purposes. 



There may, however, be more at stake than 

 direct actual parentage. Here we are on less 

 certain ground, and discussing supposed facts 

 which are disputed altogether by 

 Influence of many breeders, and on which 

 Former opposite opinions are expressed by 



Matinga. some scientific investigators. But 



there is a large amount of presump- 

 tive evidence for the belief that in a sense it is 

 possible for a chick or other animal to have two 

 fathers ; not to be the offspring solely of the 

 actual parent, but to be also influenced by 

 previous unions with the mother. Doubtless 

 much of the alleged evidence is open to all sorts 

 of objections : nearly all the evidence of practical 

 breeders is so. But most experienced breeders 

 who have really managed their own yards, not 



leaving them to others, believe in the occasional 

 more or less permanent results of previous un- 

 desirable alliances, and take strict precautions 

 that their most valued stock is not exposed to 

 such. We can only allege one experience 

 personally, relating to one of several Dark 

 Brahma pullets which were reared for us on a 

 farm. One of these was frequently producing 

 traces all next season, and may have done later, 

 for all we know, of a common dunghill cross 

 there experienced by all of them. There were 

 no signs but in the produce of this one, and such 

 rarity and uncertainty may well account for 

 differences of opinion. The late Mr. Frederick 

 Wragg related to us a very similar experience of 

 his own. It is much more difficult to under- 

 stand such consequences in the case of birds, 

 where the germ is quickly enwrapped in an 

 impermeable shell, than in that of mammals, 

 where a half-bred offspring is for months con- 

 nected by direct blood-circulation with the 

 mother ; but it is at least better to be on the 

 safe side, and not allow a valuable pullet to 

 be contaniinated by undesirable society. 



Equally disputed by many is another influ- 

 ence, which we are personally quite convinced 

 of, and which may indeed be possibly a cause 



of that just alluded to. It is that of 



Influence ^"y strong impression upon the 



of the imagination or sight of the birds. 



Imagination, j^ jg difficult to see the point of 



some sneers about Jacob, which 

 have been worded in certain cases as if his 

 results were ascribed to special Providence ; on 

 the contrary, the whole is simply related as the 

 crafty expedient, with more or less result, of an 

 experienced and successful flock-master. We 

 were convinced by what seemed, and still 

 seems to us, the conclusive case, personally 

 known to us, of a breeder of white Cochins at 

 Bristol, who also kept some Minorcas for further 

 egg supply. He got many chickens with black 

 splashes when black hens were added to one of 

 his pens, and on removing them the black 

 splashes ceased. He was so struck by the 

 coincidence, that he repeated the experiment 

 again, with the same results. Here, too, all the 

 chickens did not come with black splashes by 

 any means, and in this diversity lies endless 

 room for doubt and contradiction ; but he and 

 we were both convinced, once for all. We also 

 acquired the conviction, when first breeding from 

 a heavily hocked Brahma cockerel, that after 

 cutting his hocks quite short (done in the first 

 place merely for fertility) the percentage of 

 hocked chickens, not then allowed for exhibi- 

 tion, decreased by an evident, marked percentage. 

 Doubtless any such phenomena are various and 



