R. C. PUNNETT AND P. G. BaILEY 209 



examination, when they were nearly full grown, revealed the presence 

 of one or two very small feathers in this position. Instances of this 

 extreme reduction of the feathering are comparatively rare. In the 

 great majority of cases there is no difficulty in appreciating the presence 

 of the feathering either at hatching or at any later stage in the bird's 

 life. But apparently in a few cases the feathers fail to break through 

 in early life, and occasionally, as in $ 64/12, they never break through 

 at all. 



In 1917 a few observations were made on the extent of the feathering 

 in Pens 10 and 20. Both cocks were birds with legs slightly feathered 

 though not of the very reduced type. Each was mated with a hen of 

 mixed Hamburgh-Sebright-Leghorn origin. Presumably these hens 

 were pure for the clean-leg character for during the past eight years 

 many hundreds have been bred from birds involving these three breeds 

 without the appearance of a single case of feathered leg. 



There are two points of interest in connection with the feathered- 

 leg birds from these two pens. In the first place the offspring may 

 shew a grade of leg-feathering much heavier than that of the male 

 parent. In Table III these chickens^ have been graded roughly into 

 three classes: (a) strong, in which the feathering is not dissimilar to that 

 of the pure Langshan, (b) moderate and (c) slight, including birds with 

 feathering similar to or less in extent than that of the male parents. 



TABLE Iir. 



Male oflFsprlng Female offspring 



Father Mother Strong Moderate Slight Strong Moderate Slight 



<? 44 ? .S88 2 1 1 — — 4 



cr271 ?210 1 1 3 — 1 3 



<?271 ?454 6 — — 2 3 2 



Totals ... 9 2 4 2 4 9 



In 6 cases out of 17 from $ $ 388 and 210 the leg- feathering was 

 markedly heavier than in the father, suggesting that the clean-legged 

 bird may carry some modifier affecting the extent to which the feather- 

 ing developes. </ 271 was also mated with $ 454, an F^ bird with 

 feathering well marked though not as heavy as in the Pure Langshan. 

 Here again some of the offspring were more strongly feathered than 

 either of the parents. 



1 The numbers are rather less than those given in Table II. Some of the chickens 

 died without their sex being determined. 



