402 



KNOWLEDGE. 



November, 1913. 



brighter. One very pale cock bird (with a grey tick 

 of the left cheek) was mate to most of the hens 

 both young and old. 



The parent birds escaped after rearing their 

 brood. 



The white sport hen was bred by Miss Lee, of 

 Martinborough, and I purchased it from her, as I 

 intended, if possible, to produce from it a race of 

 white canaries breeding true to colour. To attain 

 this end I determined to experiment on Mendel's 

 lines and bought as a mate for the white sport a buff 

 cock, quite unrelated to her. From the mating of 



generation) I mated in 1911-12 to their sons the 

 white cocks of 1910-11 (second generation) and 

 from them I obtained fourteen buff chicks and 

 twenty-six white chicks (see Table 75). 



The three white hens (1910-11, second generation) 

 I mated to white cocks (1910-11, second genera- 

 tion) in 1911-12, and from them I obtained twenty- 

 five white chicks, no buff ones appearing in the nests 

 at all, apparently proving their recessive character 

 (see Table 76). The six buff hens (1910-11, 

 second generation, I mated to white cocks (1910-11, 

 second generation) in 1911-12. Two of them gave me 



2 buff hens. 



Mated to a white 



cock. 



All buff chicks. 



No whites. 



Evidently pure 



Dominants. 



Table 72. 



Buff cock, 1908-9. X P ure white sport hen.* 1908-9. 

 (Black Cap.) (Grey tick on left cheek.) 



3 buff cocks. 



(Clear and variegated.) 



4 buff hens. 



Mated to white 



cocks. 



Some white chicks. 

 Some buff chicks. 



Evidently impure 

 Dominants or hybrids. 



3 buff hens. 

 (Clear and variegated.) 



9 white birds. 

 6 cocks and 3 hens. 



3 cocks X 3 hens. 



25 white chicks. 



No buffs. 



Evidently recessives 



and breeding pure. 



Several buff cocks. 



Not used again for breeding. 



1st hybrid generation, 

 1909-10. 



2nd generation, 1910-11. 



3rd generation, 191 1- 12. 



* Note. — The white sport was bred from ordinary variegated buff parents and very much in-bred. One pale buff cock, in particular, 

 appeared several times as father in previous generations, the white hen being his granddaughter on both sides. 



this pair in 1909-10, I reared three buff cocks and 

 three buff hens (see Tables 72 and 73). No 

 " whites " appeared, which is, of course, what I 

 expected. The white sport hen died before the next 

 season, so I was unable to use her again, and was 

 left with her young ones (three buff cocks and three 

 buff hens) to carry on the experiment. Some of 

 them were clear and some variegated. 



These three buff cocks and three buff hens I 

 mated together in 1910-11 and obtained from them 

 forty-eight buff chicks and eighteen white ones, 

 proving their hybrid character (see Tables 72 and 

 74). Nine of the " whites " were reared, six 

 cocks and three hens, and I kept five buff hens 

 to breed with the following year. The buff cocks 

 I did not use for breeding as I had not white 

 hens enough to spare to test them with to see 

 if they carried white blood. Also there would 

 certainly be some dominants in them and I did not 

 want to increase my breeding operations or to 

 multiply the buff birds — for which reason I did not 

 use the buff hybrid cocks of the first generation 

 again, but used only the white cocks as mates for all 

 the hens the following year. 



The three buff hens of 1909-10 (first hybrid 



only buff birds, no white ones appearing in the nests 

 at all, which looked as though they were dominants, 

 (see Table 77), the other four hens having 

 sixteen buff chicks and twenty-seven white ones, 

 evidently being hybrids, or impure dominants (see 

 Table 78). 



The details of each nest are made out in the 

 accompanying tables. The eggs were carefully 

 numbered and the young had numbered rings on 

 their legs, so that there should be no mistaking the 

 birds belonging to each pair. 



The white chickens are easily distinguished 

 directly they are hatched, as their skin is a pale 

 bright pink, quite unlike the ordinary yellow appear- 

 ance of a common hatching. Very often (but not 

 always) the hybrid chicks have a pinkish-yellowish 

 body when first hatched, but this soon turns yellow, 

 and is never the bright light pink of the white chick. 

 Also the hybrid chicks are generally (but not always) 

 very pale in the nest feathers, quite a creamy white, 

 but becoming brighter yellow later, although many 

 remain very pale, but not all of them. It was on 

 account of these two peculiarities of the hybrid birds 

 that I mated the two buff hens (see Table 79) to 

 the white cocks, as I suspected that they would have 



