148 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



wild grossulariata. And it has not been manifested 

 because the males are pure and the grossulariata 

 character is dominant. Some light is thus thrown 

 upon the nature and origin of variations. We 

 may be justified in believing that the lacticolor variety 

 became a manifest one by a germinal change in one 

 or more of the eggs of a wild female grossulariata, 

 resulting in the elimination of the factor which 

 produces the larger spotted condition that chiefly 

 distinguishes grossulariata from its variety lacticolor. 



The first individuals, like the later ones of the 

 variety, would be all females ^ and these would 

 necessarily have to cross with the wild male grossu- 

 lariata in order to perpetuate their race. 



Fundamentally similar to the sex-inheritance of 

 the characters we have just considered in the currant 

 moth, is that of the black-eye in the " green " or 

 the yellow canaries and the pink-eye of the 

 cinnamon canaries. Miss Durham has shown that 

 the pink-eye condition of these latter birds applies 

 only to the early days after hatching, for, as they 

 grow older, pigment of a chocolate colour appears. 

 Although the pigment in the eyes of adult cinna- 

 mon canaries is really chocolate, yet it appears to 

 be black, owing to the degree of concentration in 

 which it occurs. The pigment in the eyes of the 

 " green " and yellow canaries is really, and not 

 apparently, black. 



The chief feature of general interest which is 

 manifested by these experiments is of the same 



