i893. SOME FACTS OF TELEGONY. 439 



by the spaniel ; but this in form and habits showed traces of pointer 

 blood. 



With birds, the conditions differ widely from those present in the 

 case of mammals, since in the former class tliere is no possibility of 

 the infection of the maternal blood by a cross-bred foetus ; yet there 

 is evidence of the telegonic phenomenon in them also. Mr. Lewis 

 Wright (g) is so convinced of its occurrence that he says, " We 

 would never on any account allow a male bird of any strange 

 breed to enter, even for a day in winter, a yard of hens which we 

 greatly valued." He gives some instances, from which I select the 

 following : — 



A Mr. Payne, in England, had two Spanish pullets running with 

 both a Spanish and Cochin cock. After they began to lay the Cochin 

 was removed, and six weeks after the eggs were saved and set, but the 

 chickens were feather-legged, in all other points resembling the 

 Spanish. 



In America, a breeder of game finding a neighbour's feather- 

 legged bantam cock came over his fence, penned in his fowls securely, 

 and saved no eggs for a month after, but several chicks still had 

 feathered legs, though with no other sign of the cross. Dr. Harvey, 

 who favoured the theory of maternal infection by the fcetus, states, 

 as proof that telegony, as would be expected on this view, does 

 not occur in birds, that he has been assured that crossing with a 

 bantam during one season does not affect the progeny of a common 

 hen during the next. 



But Mr. Godwin, quoted above, also gives some instances of the 

 working of this principle with fowls. A Dorking hen (5-toed, with 

 bare white legs), after running with a Dorking cock, was put to a 

 dark Brahma (4-toed, with feathered yellow legs.) The eggs on the 

 two following days produced pure Dorkings; the egg on the third or 

 fourth day a Dorking with three or four feathers on one leg ; the next 

 egg a feather-legged Dorking with four toes only on one foot, both 

 legs being white ; the next egg, and all after, yellow-legged birds, 

 with a lot of feathers, as if the influence of the sire were progressive. 

 This case came to his knowledge some thirty years back. 



In Mr. S. Fielding's yard, at Trentham, Mr. Godwin saw some 

 young fowls of game character, yet with a decidedly mongrel look. 

 They were the offspring of a Silver Hamburg pullet, which had 

 been running with a game cock, and three weeks had been allowed 

 to elapse after her removal from him before any eggs were set ; yet 

 this was the result. 



It is obvious that some of the cases above given can hardly be 

 set down to reversion, feather-legged fowls and polled sheep not being 

 ancestral types ; nor is previous crossing a likely explanation. Before 

 concluding, I may mention a remarkable fact stated in Professor 

 Newton's new "Dictionary of Birds" (10) ; according to this, Nathusius 

 came to the conclusion that by microscopical examination, which 



