224: Heredity. 



food, and they are said to be particularly liable to be 

 struck by hawks.. 



With reference to variation in the plumage of the 

 male fowl Darwin says ( Variation, p. 307): " As in some 

 orders of birds the males display extraordinarily shaped 

 feathers, such as naked shafts with disks at the end, etc., 

 the following case may be worth giving. In the wild 

 Gallus liankiva, and in our domestic fowls, the barbs 

 which arise from each side of the extremities of the 

 liackels are naked or not clothed with barbules, so that 

 they resemble bristles ; but Mr. Brent sent me some 

 scapular hackels from a young Birchen Duckwing game- 

 cock, in which the naked barbs became densely reclothed 

 with barbules towards their tips, so that these tips, 

 which were dark colored with a metallic lustre, were 

 separated from the lower parts by a symmetrically- shaped 

 transparent zone formed of the naked portions of the 

 barbs. Hence the colored tips appeared like little sepa- 

 rate metallic disks. The sickle feathers in the tail, of 

 which there are three pair, and which are eminently 

 characteristic of the male sex, differ much in the vari- 

 ous breeds. They are scymater-shaped in some Ham- 

 burgs, instead of being long and flowing as in the typi- 

 cal breeds. They are extremely short in the Cochins, 

 and are not at all developed in Hennies. They are car- 

 ried, together with the whole tail, erect in Dorkings and 

 games, but droop much in Malays and some Cochins. 

 Sultans are characterized by an additional number of 

 lateral sickle feathers. The spurs vary much, being 

 placed higher or lower on the shank; being extremely 

 long and sharp in games, and blunt and short in Cochins." 



The number of the spurs varies, some fowls having as 

 many as five on each leg; their position on the leg also 

 varies in different breeds. 



