148 TELEGONY 



faced horned ram of their own breed. The lambs were all polled 

 and brownish in the face. 



In the autumn of 1846 the ewes were again put to another fine 

 ram of their own breed. Again the lambs were mongrels, but not 

 so markedly as before. Two were polled and dun-faced, with very- 

 small horns ; while the other three were white-faced, with small 

 round horns. At length the owner parted with his ewes without 

 getting from them a single pure-bred lamb. 



Perhaps, however, the ewes were not so pure-bred as was supposed. 



Cornevin cites from Magne the statement that white ewes, first 

 crossed by black rams and then by white rams, bear to the latter, 

 lambs which are piebald or which have blackish eyelids, lips, and 

 limbs (Magne, J. H., Hygidne veterinaire appliquee, p. 206). But 

 black variations are common even when no black rams have been 

 used for several generations. 



Cattle. — Weismann (1893, P- 3S5) refers to a case reported by 

 Carneri. A cow of a dark grey Miirzthal herd was put to a " light- 

 coloured Pinzgau bull " ; it bore a calf with the characteristic 

 brown and white patches of the Pinzgau breed, as well as with dis- 

 tinct traces of the dark grey Miirzthal cross. It was subsequently 

 served by a Miirzthal bull, and the second calf, while for the most 

 part grey, showed " large brown spots like those of the Pinzgau 

 breed." But this case is also inconclusive, since it is possible, as 

 Carneri admitted, that " a drop of Pinzgau blood " may have pre- 

 viously got into the Miirzthal herd without his being aware of it. 



Pigs. — Another circumstantial case cited by Darwin is that of a 

 sow of Lord Western's black-and-white Essex breed, which Mr. Giles 

 put first to a deep chestnut wild boar and after a time to a boar of 

 the black-and-white breed. The offspring of the first union showed 

 the characters of both parents, but in some the chestnut colour of 

 the boar prevailed. From the second union the sow produced some 

 young plainly marked with the chestnut tint, which is never shown 

 by the Essex breed (Darwin, 1868, vol. i. p. 404). 



Rodents. — Breeders of rabbits, rats, and mice have sometimes 

 reported phenomena which suggest telegony ; but the great varia- 

 bility of these rodents makes them very unsuitable subjects of ex- 

 periment. 



Prof. Cossar Ewart refers to two cases. Mr. C. J. Pound, bac- 

 teriologist to the Queensland Government, " crossed a grey rabbit 

 with a grey-and-white buck, and then mated her with a black buck 



