8 POULTRY BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT 



Experiments along another line pointed in the same direc- 

 tion. Students of heredity know that crossing and inter- 

 crossing breeds and varieties cause reversion, or a breeding 

 back to remote ancestors. "Why the likeness of some ancient 

 ancestor through the act of crossing different breeds should 

 suddenly reappear in the offspring after having apparently 

 disappeared from the face of the earth centuries ago is one 

 of the enigmas of breeding. Following up the clue of re- 

 version, Darwin found what he claimed to be strong evi- 

 dence pointing to the Gallus bankiva as the original ancestor 

 of our fowls. He says that Game, Malay, Cochin, Bantam 

 and Silkies, when crossed, revert to the Bankiva. In cross- 

 ing the Black Spanish and White Silkie, he found that the 

 offspring were all black, except one cock which resembled 

 Gallus bankiva so strongly that he said : ' * It was a marvelous 

 sight to compare this bird with Gallus bankiva and then with 

 its father." 



He declared further that the color of the golden and silver 

 Pencilled Hamburgs pointed to their ancient progenitors. 

 "This may be in part explained by direct reversion to the 

 parent form, the Bankiva hen, for this bird has all its upper 

 plumage finely mottled. ' ' Remarkable, is it not, that after 

 two or three thousand years of breeding away from the wild 

 fowl, it is possible in crossing to trace in the color of plumage 

 and shape and carriage of the offspring the descent of the 

 wild fowl to our present modern breeds. And yet to scien- 

 tists such as Darwin, mute testimony of this nature may be 

 more conclusive than the written word. 



Darwin's findings in regard to the common origin of the 

 domestic fowl may be summarized as follows: 



1. The domestic fowls mate freely with G. bankivck 



2. They mate very rarely with any other species. 



3. The Bankiva hybrids are fertile. 



4. The hybrids of other species are not fertile. 



