Chap. XIII. REVERSION. 29 



birds, are at first of one colour, but in a year or two acquire 

 feathers of the colour of the other parent ; for in this case the 

 tendency to a change of plumage is clearly latent in the young 

 bird. So it is with hornless breeds of cattle, some of which 

 acquire small horns as they grow old. Purely bred black and 

 white bantams, and some other fowls, occasionally assume, with 

 advancing years, the red feathers of the parent-species. I will 

 here add a somewhat different case, as it connects in a striking 

 manner latent characters of two classes. Mr. Hewitt G4 pos- 

 sessed an excellent Sebright gold-laced bantam hen, which, 

 as she became old, grew diseased in her ovaria, and assumed 

 male characters. In this breed the males resemble the females 

 in all respects except in their combs, wattles, spurs, and 

 instincts ; hence it might have been expected that the diseased 

 hen would have assumed only those masculine characters 

 which are proper to the breed, but she acquired, in addition, 

 well-arched tail sickle-feathers quite a foot in length, saddle- 

 feathers on the loins, and hackles on the neck, — ornaments 

 which, as Mr. Hewitt remarks, " would be held as abominable 

 in this breed." The Sebright bantam is known 65 to have 

 originated about the year 1800 from a cross between a common 

 bantam and a Polish fowl, recrossed by a hen-tailed bantam, 

 and carefully selected ; hence there can hardly be a doubt 

 that the sickle-feathers and hackles which appeared in the old 

 hen were derived from the Polish fowl or common bantam ; and 

 we thus see that not only certain masculine characters proper 

 to the Sebright bantam, but other masculine characters derived 

 from the first progenitors of the breed, removed by a period of 

 above sixty years, were lying latent in this henbird, ready 

 to be evolved as soon as her ovaria became diseased. 



From these several facts it must be admitted that certain 

 characters, capacities, and instincts, may lie latent in an indi- 

 vidual, and even in a succession of individuals, without our 

 being able to detect the least sign of their presence. When 

 fowls, pigeons, or cattle of different colours are crossed, and 



64 ' Journal of Horticulture,' July, Tegetmeier. 



1864, p. 33. I have had the oppor- 8S ' The Poultry Book,' by Mr 



tunity of examining these remarkable Tegetmeier, 1866, p. 241. 

 feathers through the kindness of Mr 



