28 WYANDOTTES. 



in some important point or points, from the breed or variety to 

 which its parents belonged. 



A " STRAIN " Is, properly speaking, a family, with established 

 and recognized points of mutual resemblance. 



"HERIDITY, OR ATAVISM" Is the inheritance by offspring 

 of the characteristics or likeness of their ancestors, more or less 

 remote. The phenomena of atavism or reversion to ancestral 

 characters, and the resemblance of offspring to a remote ancestor 

 that differed in many respects from the parents, is little studied by 

 the majority of breeders, and yet, many of the " sports " and off- 

 colors which come suddenly in broods of pure bred fowls, once in a 

 while, might be traced back to some controlling ancestor. 



The word atavism is from atavus, an ancestor, and, though the 

 name is significant itself, it is better known by the names " rever- 

 sion," " throwing back," " breeding back," to a long lost or for- 

 gotten character in the ancestor. Any peculiarity of an ancestor, 

 either in organization, type, form, color, trait, etc., may be transmit- 

 ted, more or less, however remotely, to the offspring, when favorable 

 conditions lead to their development. Mr. Tallet, of Betley, Eng- 

 land, crossed his fowls with Malays, and, though he attempted to 

 get rid of this strain, he gave it up in despair, the Malay character- 

 istics reappearing forty years after the cross was made. Professor 

 Agassiz has remarked that the offspring is not the offspring of 

 fathers and mothers, but of the grandparents as well. 



Darwin has diligently labored to show that the evolution of 

 species and varieties rests upon a triple foundation, which includes 

 the law of inheritance, the law of variation and the law of selection. 

 The law of inheritance points to that universal tendency in all forms 

 of life by which it transmits and perpetuates its likeness; the law that 

 "like begets like." The law of variation is declared to modify this 

 law of inheritance; individuals in any species having an original and 

 inherent power to vary slightly from the parent form, to transmit 

 such variations by successive transmissions and accumulations, to 

 perfect and fix such variations; and, finally, it is asserted that nature, 

 or natural selection, provokes and pushes this power of variation, by 

 that fearful struggle for existence, that wide-spread and remorseless 

 conflict, under whose steady pressure each living form is forced to 

 develop to the utmost, to retain and augment every slight advan- 

 tage a conflict that issues in " the survival of the fittest." 



It is evident that Darwin makes the law of variation the scien- 

 tific backbone of the whole system. His fundamental thought is, 



