BRAINS AND SPINAL CORDS IN ATAXIC PIGEONS 113 



sort and placement of white seems to be the only trace of white 

 that could be carried by either the 'scraggly' male or the 'ataxic' 

 female. The dam (545) of no. A126 was not very accurately de- 

 scribed for color, but was probably of medium slate color and two- 

 barred. The possibility of some white primaries is not excluded, 

 but is wholly improbable. Her sire was of slate color and two- 

 barred; her dam was wholly black. Her brothers (of whom one 

 was a 'scraggly,' from an 'alcoholized' egg) and sisters bear no 

 record for white in any case. Her offspring, the several brothers 

 and sisters of A126, ranged in color from light slate with two bars 

 to black; no white appeared in any birds of this fraternity. 

 The dam of 'scraggly' A126 also threw a 'scraggly' female (A339) 

 from an 'etherized' egg. The dam, no. 545, was herself hatched 

 from an 'alcoholized' egg, and from the eighteenth egg laid within 

 a period of ninety-two days. No. A126 was produced out of 

 season, February 1, from the tenth egg in life, these ten eggs being 

 produced in the very short period of forty-seven days. 



The above records for 'scraggliness' in connection with the 

 mother of 'scraggly' no. 126 would raise a question as to whether 

 'scraggliness' were not carried by the mother, and thus did not 

 originate in the germ that produced A126. This is a question 

 that cannot, of course, be definitely settled. It is of importance 

 to note, however, that the 'scraggliness' in this fraternity is found 

 only in 'treated' germs (alcohol, ether), or in the offspring (A126) 

 of a bird from a treated germ, and also in all cases in connection 

 with weakening influences of reproductive overwork. Scraggli- 

 ness had appeared earlier several times in birds of various strains 

 in the long history of our collection of pigeons, but it had been 

 observed that such birds arose more frequently or entirely from 

 'weakened germs' — of late season or out of season, and from par- 

 ents 'worked' more rapidly than normal. To us it therefore 

 seems more probable that the germ which gave rise to A126, if 

 developed, grown, and liberated under wholly favorable condi- 

 tions instead of the reverse, would probably have produced a 

 normal bird; and if, then, in turn, the germs produced by this 

 normal bird had been favored by the best and most normal condi- 

 tions the character would probably not have been exhibited in 

 its offspring. 



