THE CALL OF THE HEN. 73 



at other times the cock bird, transmitting their characteristics. When 

 I was assured of this through numerous experiments, I reasoned that 

 my failures were because the male birds were of a different type from 

 the hens, and when I had demonstrated that the male birds were of a 

 different physiology by practice and scientific measures, and mated ac- 

 cordingly, I flattered myself with the assurance that I had discovered 

 all that was necessary in order to breed poultry intelligently. But 

 after more experiments, I was not wholly satisfied with results; and as 

 I had adopted the motto, "Like begets like," I reasoned that although 

 the birds we had mated were alike, as far as we could see, the remaining 

 difference must be some place where I had failed to look for it. My 

 knowledge of the different variations in form of the skulls of animals 

 and birds of the same breed, together with the knowledge I possessed 

 of human skulls, led me to investigate the head as the only remaining 

 factor in the problem. When I reduced this proposition to a method, 

 and when I was able to measure its potentiality, then I assembled the 

 hens and cock birds, mating the 180-egg type hens and the 180-egg 

 type cock birds, each bird with the same degree of prepotency. Then, 

 and not until then, had I ever knowingly mated like to like. For years, 

 like many others, I thought I had mated males to like females, but I 

 was mistaken. And here is where I discovered my second great secret. 

 After this I mated like to like more intelligently, and the results were 

 more satisfactory. 



I consider the selection of the male birds for mating along anatomical 

 and physiological lines, together with the proper understanding and use 

 of the faculty that governs the reproductive function, as the greatest 

 discoveries ever made in the poultry industry. 



The reader may think there is very little difference in the skulls 

 in Fig. 35. If you add an inch to the length of a man's legs, it does 

 not seem to make much difference in his height, but if you add an inch 

 to the end of his nose, it would make a great difference in his looks. 

 I found this expansion on the back of the skull corresponded to the faculty 

 of amativeness in the human family. I found that when it was large in 

 both male and female the parents possessed the ability to transmit their 

 predominating characteristics to their offspring. If the parents were 

 fancy birds, their progeny would in some cases excel their parents in 

 feather, vigor, and other good qualities. If the parents were of the 

 egg type, some of the chicks would be as good and some better layers 

 and more vigorous than the parents; if of the meat type, the progeny 

 would be of a stronger constitution, of a quicker growth, and assimilate 

 their food better in a word, if both parents have this faculty (called 

 "prepotency" by some) large, the chicks will be more likely to be equal 

 to, and some will, excel their parents along the lines in which the parents 

 predominate. If the parents have the faculty small, the chicks will 

 not be so good as the parent stock, but will degenerate along the lines 

 that the parents excel in. If a hen is a 200-egg type and she has this 

 faculty small, she will be just as valuable as an egg-producer as if she 

 had the faculty large, but she will be of no value as a breeder; she will 

 be an old maid from choice, and her eggs will not be fertile, if she has the 

 faculty small enough. If the male bird has it small, his eggs will not 

 hatch well, and if totally lacking, they will not hatch at all. I have 

 found a few cases where the cock bird had the faculty of prepotency 



