PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 33 



this form of Heredity is Atavism (from a Latin word 

 meaning ancestor). 



Here is one of the dangers of the ambitious poultry 

 breeder. He seeks to make rapid progress. He wish- 

 es to advance continuously and swiftly in perfecting 

 his pets. He makes matings of birds uniting the char- 

 acteristics which he most desires to develop in his 

 chicks. In so doing he, perhaps, brings together birds 

 possessing some strong opposing characteristics. In- 

 stead of commingling their characters to produce the 

 desired composite chick their dominant characters dis- 

 appear and a long latent character of the original type 

 of the breed or of some almost forgotten ancestor be- 

 comes dominant in the progeny. 



The cautious, careful, conservative poultry breeder 

 makes haste slowly and avoids these breaks in breeding 

 which arise because of the action of Atavism. 



Prepotency. The poultryman who patiently persists 

 in selecting and mating together his very best birds, 

 with the definite and decided purpose to improve cer- 

 tain characteristics, finds that, instead of throwing back, 

 the offspring strike forward. Pairing together two 



fowls of like good quality, if they do not possess an- 

 tagonistic qualities or powers, usually insures the devel- 

 opment of the good quality in the offspring to a greater 

 degree than was apparent in either of the parents. 



By mating together birds of similar excellent quali- 

 ties the power of transmitting those qualities also is 

 usually increased. By continuing this process genera- 

 tion after generation, in a strain of fowls, the valuable 

 quality becomes more and more a distinguishing char- 

 acteristic of the family. 



In pursuing such a policy, there are sure to arise 

 among the progeny, individual birds, which not only 

 possess the desirable good quality but also show in- 

 creased and certain power of transmitting the quality 

 to their get. They are prepotent, i. e. very powerful in 

 this respect. Such special, emphatic power is a very 

 valuable possession and the poultryman should cherish 



