140 TELEGONY AND REVERSION. 



before a certain stage in the process of maturation is reached^ 

 it may serve as so much nourishment, and thus fail to assert 

 itself in the subsequent progeny ; whereas if it enters later 

 it may obtain a footing, reach the nucleus, and eventually 

 take part in the formation of the subsequent offspring. In 

 the second place, the whole or almost the whole of the 

 incorporated germ-plasm of the previous sire may some- 

 times be discharged in the polar bodies, i. e. when the 

 nucleus of the all but ripe egg is discharging the half of 

 its germ-plasm. Were this to happen the '^infection" 

 would either not take place at all or be so limited that it 

 might readily escape notice. In the third place, telegony 

 may seem to be rare because of the prepotency of the sub- 

 sequent sire. The first two explanations are at the best 

 mere guesses, but the third may be a very real explana- 

 tion. 



It is well known that some breeds are so fixed that they 

 almost invariably produce offspring like themselves, how- 

 ever they happen to be mated. For example, while the 

 black Galloway polled cattle almost invariably throw blue- 

 greys to white shorthorn bulls, they frequently yield to 

 other breeds offspring so like themselves that even experts 

 are at times deceived. For example, " Twenty years ago 

 the late Duke of Buccleuch, K.Gr., tried the experiment of 

 mating Galloway bulls with West Highland heifers. The 

 bulls he used' were Baron Douglas (614) and Border Chief 

 of Drumlanrig (1015). The females were superior West 

 Highland heifers, one of which, I understand, was bred by 

 Mr. Stewart, of Ensay, and the other by Lord Malcolm, of 

 Poltalloch. When the produce — two heifers — were grazing, 

 at the age of about eighteen months, among a lot of nearly 

 a score of pure-bred pedigree Galloway heifers, half a 

 dozen of the most experienced aud best known breeders 

 of Galloways were asked by his grace's manager to pick out 

 the Galloway-Highland crosses from among the pure ones, 

 and each of these experienced judges picked out the 

 wrong animals, so closely did the half-breeds in every 



