40 



INHERITANCE IN RABBITS 



observed falls below the mid-parental by about three times that amount. 

 It is in fact removed from the mid-parental only a little less than from 

 the weight of the smaller parent. It is difficult to explain this extensive 

 deviation, but it undoubtedly exists and is apparently fairly uniform, 

 though possibly the method of computing the "expected" magnitudes is 

 faulty. The computation is made in the following way. The cube 

 root of the weight for each parent was found. These two roots were then 

 added together, and their half -sum found, which was then cubed. 



FIG. 4. Relation of the bone-weights of rabbit 248 to those of his parents and to the mid- 

 parental bone- weights. If distances are laid off from a point at the left proportional to 

 the bone-weights, they bear to each other the spacial relations of the following points : 

 A, bone- weights of the mother; B, of the father; D, of the son, cT 248; C, the mid-parental; 

 E, the expected bone- weights of the son. 



Observed and expected deviate in the same sense from the mid-parental, 

 that is, are less, but the uniform difference in amount between observed 

 and expected is something requiring fuller analysis. 



TABLE 28. Weights and volumes of skeletal parts of <? 248 in relation 



to those of his parents. 

 [Mother, old female lop; father, 6^45 ; son, (^248. Plate i, figs. 2, 3, i.] 



