22 



The Journal of Heredity 



ANOTHER PECULIAR KINK OF THE HEREDITARY MECHANISM 



This pullet of 1916 is straw colored, which is on the order of the Wheaten (iame color. (Fig. 19.) 



(which also means the color of the 

 skin), and the color of the ear lol^es of 

 the specimens for 1912, the year that 

 the experiment was started, and each 

 succeeding year, may be of interest. 

 This inff)rmation ff)r 1912, having been 

 mentioned in the early part of the 

 article, I will take up in a brief way the 

 statistics beginning with 1913. It 

 should be remembered, however, that 

 we had no specimens in 1912 that 

 were white in plumage. It will be 

 noticed that the same mnnber of speci- 

 mens were not ol)served for the differ- 

 ent characters; only a sufficient numlH-r 

 were used to get good a\erages. 



As the chicks are taken from the incu- 

 bators they are observed for number of 

 toes only. Later, observations are made 

 for color of ii'gs, ear lobi's and plmnage. 



as it is impossible to tell definitely the 

 color of the later characters until the 

 chicks are several weeks old. 



The greatest loss from raising chickens 

 occurs during the first three weeks of 

 their lives. These losses xary and are 

 often ver>- large. Many were also 

 marketed. Hence the difference in 

 the number of birds observed, at time 

 of hatching, for numl^er of toes, as com- 

 piu'ed with those observed, several weeks 

 later, for the other characters. Then 

 again in making our records one of the 

 characters is sometimes oxerlooked. 



191.^. Plnnuv^c color: ^ white; 28 other 



colors. 



Number of toes: t)f 107 chicks ob- 

 served for their number of toes, 50 had 

 4 toes on each foot and of the balance. 



