62 INHERITANCE IN POULTRY. 



poultry books that describe the "breed " quite fully are Tegetmeier (1867, 

 pp. 230-232), Baldamus (1896, pp. 170-172, " Kaul oder Kliitthiihuer " ), 

 Diirigen (1886, pp. 98-100), Wright (1902, p. 481), and Weir-Johnson- 

 Bruwu (1905, pp. 1016-1017). 



Regarding the inheritance of this characteristic, statements are not in 

 accord. Tegetmeier (p. 231) says: 



A frieud of mine purchased a successful pen [of Rumpless fowl] at a poultry show, 

 taking them away to a walk where no other fowls ever trespassed, and yet the chickens 

 were, in a considerable number of instances, furnished with fully developed tail feathers, 

 being not rnmpless. On inquiry of the previous owner, he stated: " Mine have always 

 done so from the first time I kept them; but the tailed birds will very probably produce 

 rumpless chickens." Three such birds were purposely retained, and they produced the 

 next year more than twenty youngsters, all of which but one were rumpless and destitute 

 of tail feathers. 



The foregoing experiment would seem to prove that the rumpless parents 

 were heterogametous, and that while rumplessness is dominant the recessive 

 conditionof tail is here prepotent (Castle, 1905). Darwin (1876, Chapter VII) 

 possessed a rumpless bird which " came from a family where, as I was told, 

 the breed had kept true for twenty years; but" he adds, " rumpless fowls 

 often produce chickens with tails." The breeding true of a character may 

 mean either that it is dominant and homogametoits in this respect or that it 

 is recessive. Diirigen (1886, p. 99) states that a rumpless cock mated with 

 a tailed hen produces not exclusively rumple.ss, but a fair percentage of them, 

 and Wright (1902, p. 481) saj'S that " a Rumpless fowl crossed with any other 

 generally produces a large majority of Rumpless birds." All of the fore- 

 going results are consonant with the conclusion that rumplessness is typically 

 dominant, but that the recessive full tail may be prepotent. 



MATERIAL. 



The mother was the White Leghorn bantam No. 127 discussed at page 39. 

 She is heterozj^gous and contains black gametes. 



The father (No. 117, fig. 46) was one of three rumpless bantams obtained 

 from Dr. A. H. Phelps, of Glen Falls, New York. Two of these were 

 typical Black-breasted Red Games; they lack oil glands and weigh about 

 1,000 grams each. 



RESULTS. 



Only the first generation of hybrids has been so far obtained. 



General Plumage Color. — Of 24 hybrids 12 were white or prevailingly 

 so (fig. 47). Usually, however, more or less black and more rarely some 

 buff was present. The other 12 were either black-and-white barred (and 

 these were all males) or black with more or less reddish. As we have seen, 

 the white mother contains recessive black or black-and-white, so that the 

 result accords with the expectation of only 50 per cent white. 



