Chap. XIIL REVERSION. 15 



black birds, pied with white, like the wild musk-duck, were always 

 produced. I hear from Mr. Blyth that hybrids from the canary 

 and gold-finch almost always have streaked feathers on their backs ; 

 and this streaking must be derived from the original wild canary. 



We have seen in the fourth chapter, that the so-called Himalayan 

 rabbit, with its snow-white body, black ears, nose, tail, and feet, 

 breeds perfectly true. This race is known to have been formed by 

 the union of two varieties of silver-grey rabbits. Now, when a 

 Himalayan doe was crossed by a sandy-coloured buck, a silver-grey 

 rabbit was produced ; and this is evidently a case of reversion to 

 one of the parent varieties. The young of the Himalayan rabbit are 

 born snow-white, and the dark marks do not appear until some 

 time subsequently ; but occasionally young Himalayan rabbits are 

 born of a light silver-grey, which colour soon disappears ; so that 

 here we have a trace of reversion, during an early period of life, to 

 the parent varieties, independently of any recent cross. 



In the third chapter it was shown that at an ancient period 

 some breeds of cattle in the wilder parts of Britain were white with 

 dark ears, and that the cattle now kept half wild in certain parks, 

 and those which have run quite wild in two distant parts of the 

 world, are likewise thus coloured. Now, an experienced breeder, 

 Mr. J. Beasley, of Northamptonshire, 28 crossed some carefully 

 selected West Highland cows with purely-bred shorthorn bulls. 

 The bulls were red, red and white, or dark roan ; and the Highland 

 cows were all of a red colour, inclining to a light or yellow shade. 

 But a considerable number of the offspring— and Mr. Beasley calls 

 attention to this as a remarkable fact— were white, or white with 

 red ears. Bearing in mind that none of the parents were white, 

 and that they were purely-bred animals, it is highly probable that 

 here the offspring reverted, in consequence of the cross, to the 

 colour of some ancient and half-wild parent-breed. The following 

 case, perhaps, comes under the same head : cows in their natural 

 state have their udders but little developed, and do not yield nearly 

 so much milk as our domesticated animals. Now there is some 

 reason to believe 29 that cross-bred animals between two kinds, both 

 of which are good milkers, such as Alderneys and Shorthorns, often 

 turn out worthless in this respect. 



In the chapter on the Horse reasons were assigned for believing 

 that the primitive stock was striped and dun-coloured ; and details 

 were given, showing that in all parts of the world stripes of a dark 

 colour frequently appear along the spine, across the legs, and on 

 the shoulders, where they are occasionally double or treble, and 

 even sometimes on the face and body of horses of all breeds and of 

 all colours. But the stripes appear most frequently on the various 



:8 'Gardener's Chron. and Agri- of cattle as Mr. Willoughby Wood 



cultural Gazette,' 1866, p. 528. (' Gard. Chron.' 1869, p. 1216), admits 



- 9 Ibid., 1860, p. 343. I am glad my principle of a cross giving a 



to find that so experienced a breeder tendency to reversion. 



