R. C. PUNNETT AND THE LATE MaJOR P. G. BaILEY 41 



Iiiter'7nediates. 



We have already stated that birds of an intermediate type of 

 feathering, as well as purely hen-feathered birds, have arisen during 

 our experiments ; and indeed the intermediates have greatly out- 

 numbered the typically hen-feathered ones. Though we are not at 

 present in a position to offer a satisfactory explanation of the nature 

 of these intermediates, we may record certain observations which we 

 have made in connection with them. 



(1) The intermediate condition shews a great deal of variation. 

 Some intermediates differ but slightly from a purely henny bird in 

 appearance. The majority of the saddle feathers are typically henny, 

 but scattered among them are a few in which the tip of the feather 

 exhibits the lack of barbules and the orange colour' characteristic of 

 the typical male feather. Where the general colour of the feather is 

 dark, the orange fringe at the tip is very conspicuous. Three feathers 

 from such a bird are shewn on PI. VII, fig. 3, of which two are inter- 

 mediate in type and the other a purely henny one. 



In other cases the intermediate approximates far more closely to 

 the condition found in the normal cock. Sometimes indeed the approxi 

 mation is so close that such birds might easily be classified as normal 

 feathered unless the observer were on his guard". Careful search however 

 has always revealed the presence of a few henny or nearly henny feathers 

 among the young feathers coming through. Moreover, as will be ex- 

 plained below, any doubt as to the nature of the bird is always resolved 

 at the first moult. Where we have had any doubts as to the true nature 

 of the feathering, we have kept the bird until it was 18 — 20 months 

 old. A good example of this type of intermediate feathering is figured 

 on PI. VII, fig. 1. In their gold colour and general appearance, they might 

 pass for feathers from a typical male. Between these two extremes all 

 sorts of grades of intermediate feathers are to be found, such for example 

 as those figured on PI. VIII, figs. 1 and 3. From the almost henny feather 

 to that which resembles a normal cock feather, a practically continuous 

 series might be formed from a small number of intermediate birds. For 

 the feathers on the same bird are not all of precisely the same grade. 



1 This of course when the bird is genetically a gold. The tip is white, or nearly so, 

 when it is genetically a silver. 



- When such birds first made their appearance in a certain pen during the early days 

 of the work we recorded some as normal ^ ^ . However we discovered our mistake, and 

 the results from this pen are not included in the present account. 



