378 EwAUT — Variation : Germinal and Environmental. 



claw and the faint arching of the tail may be held as indicating that the units of 

 germ-plasm contributed by the male white fantail sire contested every inch of 

 ground throughout the whole period of development, and that, when a small point 

 is gained, it may be held to the last. Even in inbred stock, reversion occasionally 

 occurs. Further experiments may show that the slight reversions familiar to 

 breeders are due to loss of vigour in one or both of the parents. 



Recently acquired characters are the first to go, not, I think, because the vital 

 iinits representing them are few in number, but because they are wanting in vigoui- 

 or something akin to vigour. Hence, when the stress comes they deteriorate and 

 ultimately count for little or nothing, with the result that the new individual is 

 launched into the world minus the decorations and other traits that characterized 

 the variety or race to which it by birth belongs. 



