PRINCIPLES OF POULTRY BREEDING 



67 



would appear in the chick. These stripes still appear in the 

 down of newly hatched chicks of the Brown leghorn breed 

 and some others. 



A third cross from the same breeds produce fowls that 

 were barred in the feathers, though barring was not a char- 

 acteristic of any of the different breeds known to have been 

 used in producing 

 either. It might have 

 been that later, if not in 

 the making 1 of the breeds, 

 by accident, or design, 

 a cross was made with a 

 barred breed, and the 

 characteristic of bar- 

 ring, though latent so 

 long as no crossing was 

 resorted to, reappeared 

 when crossing and inter- 

 crossing took place. The 

 fact that a hen may lay 

 only a dozen eggs in a 

 year may be accounted 

 for by reversion to the 

 wild ancestor. In cross- 

 ing the Barred Ply- 

 mouth Rock and the 

 White Leghorn, some 90 

 per cent, of the progeny were white. In crossing the 

 white crosses together, a few of the offspring were blue in 

 color. 



Reversion is usually an evil, not always. Where improve- 

 ment has been going steadily on, reversion must always be 

 an evil. Sometimes, however, progress has gone backward 

 in breeding, and in that case reversion may restore the lost 



RESULT OF CROSSING WHITE WYAN- 

 DOTTE AND BLACK MINORCA 



Female of second generation. Note barring. 



