152 AUSTRALIAN AQBICCLTDRE. 



the latter. So that in experimentalising it is requisite to 

 select those only which may be said to start equal, when a 

 fixed result is aimed at. 



A striking instance in support of this observation was 

 presented in the poultry yard, where very close tests of 

 this nature can be made. The case was with a well-bred 

 brown Leghorn male, mated with two good light Brahma 

 hens. Twenty-six chickens resulted, fourteen of them 

 cockerels, twelve pullets. The hen chicks were small-boned 

 brown birds, as much alike as possible, with little or no 

 feathers on their legs, everyone without exception a 

 presentable reproduction of their grandmother, the pure 

 brown Leghorn hen. The fourteen cockerels developed 

 into tine birds, very similar in appearance to each other, 

 big-boned, stalking, muff-legged, of decided Brahma type, 

 and excepting for a few dark feathers on the backs and 

 spotted beaks of a few of them, they might be taken for 

 the lineal descendants of their maternal grandfather, the 

 light Brahma, none showing more than a trace of Leghorn 

 blood. They all follow almost closely the lines found 

 correct in so many cases as to the reproductive influences 

 of the sexes. The study of the science of reproduction 

 is at once important and interesting. Perhaps the fore- 

 going may induce younger breeders when selecting 

 their stock to make careful enquiries as to the properties 

 of the parents, as upon these in a great measure will 

 the qualities of their stock depend. 



Shorthorns. " The Durhams, as they were originally 

 termed, and by which name they are still generally known 

 in the bush districts of Australia, were originally confined 

 to the counties of Durham and York, in England. They 

 were large, loose, short-horned cattle, in the early times 

 celebrated as milkers. Although the .shorthorns of the 

 present day bear very little resemblance to the original 

 Durhams, there can be no question but that they are the 

 same breed of cattle. The breeders on the banks of the 

 river Tees, favored by their rich soil, by practising careful 

 selection, soon moulded them into a different and almost 

 distinct type, and they then became celebrated throughout 

 Great Britain as the Teeswater cattle. It is claimed for 



