138 REVERSION AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 



Crucifers, and with the unexpected appearance of upright 

 tomatoes. Similarly, the twisted teasels lose their decussation, 

 but in doing so the leaves are not left in a disorderly dispersion, 

 but a distinct new arrangement takes its place, which is to be 

 assumed as the normal one for the ancestors of the teasel family." 



§ 10. Further Examples of Reversion 



In one of Prof. Cossar Ewart's experiments a pure white 

 fantail cock pigeon, of old-established breed, which in colour 

 had proved itself prepotent over a blue pouter, was mated with 

 a cross previously made between an owl and an archangel, 

 which was far more of an owl than an archangel. The result was 

 a couple of what were, theoretically, fantail-owl-archangei 

 crosses, but the one resembled the Shetland rock-pigeon, and the 

 other the blue rock of India. Not only in colour (slaty-blue), 

 but in shape, attitude, and movements there was an almost 

 complete reversion to the form which is believed to be ancestral 

 to all the domestic pigeons. The only marked difference was 

 a slight arching of the tail, but there were only twelve tail- 

 feathers, as in the rock-dove, whereas the father fantail had 

 thirty. 



A dark bantam hen, crossed with an Indian game Dorking 

 cock, produced amongst others a cockerel almost identical with 

 a jungle fowl [Gallus hankiva) — i.e. with the original wild stock 

 (Ewart). 



Similarly, in his horse-zebra hybridisations, Ewart obtained 

 forms whose stripings were at least plausibly interpreted as 

 reversions to an extremely old type of horse, such as is hinted 

 at in the striped ponies of Tibet. 



A smooth-coated white rabbit, derived from an Angora 

 and a smooth-coated white buck, was mated with a smooth- 

 coated, almost white doe (grand-daughter of a Himalaya doe), 

 with very interesting results, significant of the complexity of 



