The Journal of Heredity 



A FIRST GENERATION HYBRID FROM THE WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCK-DORKING 



MATING OF 1912 



In first crosses, characters are often thrown up from the clei)ths of the stream of inheritance 

 which do not appear on the surface. This pullet shows poor Barred FMyniouth Rock markings. 

 She was used in breeding pen 22 in 1913. She has four toes, a Plymouth Rock character. (Fig. 5.) 



gives a general softer gray Ciist to the 

 plumage. The breast and front of the 

 neck are salmon color. The undercoUar 

 of both sexes is slate. Another char- 

 acteristic of the Silver Cray Dorking 

 which was undesirable was the posses- 

 sion of a fifth toe. This toe gr(>ws at the 

 rear of the shank coming out just 

 abo\e the rear fourth toe and curxing 

 upward. A further undesirable quality 

 of this variety is the white color of leg. 

 This is a drawback in this country, from 

 the fact that the buving [)ublic {)refers 

 a yeIlf)W skin and yell(<w legs in the 

 fowls which the\' purchase for consump- 

 tion. The l{!nglish luarket prefers 

 fowls having white skin and Ugs. Tlu- 

 color of the egg laid is neither white nor 

 brown but is intermediate between the 

 two and can best be described as a 



tinted egg. The color ot ear lol)e in this 

 breed should be a solid red but in many 

 instances is mixed with white. 



The White Plymouth Rock used in 

 the cross possesses, as its name would 

 indicate, the desired qualit>- of white 

 plumage. It is also of good size, the 

 standard weights being: cock 9^2 'l^^-. 

 hen 73 2 l''^' cockerel S lbs., pullet 6 lbs. 

 The birds of this l)reed, howexer, stand 

 somewhat higher on legs and, while a 

 good table t\pe, do not approach what 

 was desired in the new breed quite so 

 closeK' as does the Dorking. The table 

 C|ualit\- of the I'lymouth Rock is also 

 good. it possesses the \ellow skin, 

 legs and beak, the solid red ear lobe and 

 the fourth toi' which were desired. The 

 most objectionabk- (|ualit\' of this vari- 

 et\- is the fact that il produces a brown 



