68 GENETICS 



long, sagging back and short, bent legs resembling 

 somewhat a German dachshund. With unusual 

 foresight he carefully brought up this strange lamb 

 because it was an animal that could not jump fences. 

 It occurred to this hard-headed Yankee that it would 

 be much easier to get together a flock of short, bow- 

 legged sheep, unable to negotiate anything but a low 

 hurdle, than to labor hard at building high fences. 

 So it came about that this mutating lamb, in the hands 

 of a man who appreciated labor-saving devices, be- 

 came the ancestor of the Ancon breed of sheep. 

 Later on this breed gave place in public favor to an- 

 other mutant, the Merino, which produces a superior 

 grade of wool. 



Hornless cattle suffer fewer injuries from one an- 

 other than horned cattle. It has consequently be- 

 come quite a general practice among farmers to 

 "dehorn" their stock surgically. It is an obvious ad- 

 vantage to have cattle born hornless, and many breeds 

 having this character are now established. In 1889 

 a mutant among horned stock appeared at Atkinson, 

 Kansas, in the form of a hornless Hereford. From 

 this mutant has descended the well-established race 

 of polled Hereford cattle, constituting a bovine aristoc- 

 racy^ with registry books and blue blood all their own. 



Taillessness in cats, dogs and poultry, as well as 

 hairlessness in cattle, dogs, mice and horses, are 

 further instances of mutations. 



Davenport,^ writing of his experiments with poultry, 



^ Davenport, C. B.. 1909. " Inheritance of Characteristics in Domestic 

 Fowl." Carnegie Institution of Washington, Pubhcation No. 121. 



