Kelerate. 2g3 



bei Geschvvisterembryonen nicht so stark wie bei Embryonen verschiedener 

 Abstammung. 



Durch Kälte und angesäuertes Wasser wird die Entwicklung verzögert, 

 die Variation erniedrigt, durch warmes und alkalisches Wasser das Gegen- 

 teil hiervon bewirkt : hierdurch werden sehr große Verschiedenheiten erzielt, 

 die dennoch alle lebensfähig sind und der Artbildung eine besonders 

 günstige Grundlage abzugeben scheinen. Größe und Ernährungszustand der 

 Elterntiere scheinen auf die Variation der Embryonen keinen Einfluß zu 

 nehmen (dieses Resultat ist allerdings durch Befunde anderer Beobachter 

 an anderen Organismen nicht gestützt, wonach die Größe der Embryonen 

 und Früchte mit zunehmender Größe der Erzeuger zunimmt, besser er- 

 nährte Erzeuger auch kräftigere Nachkommen haben — Ref.). 



Kammerer -Wien. 



Galloway, A. R., Canary breeding. A partial analysis of records from 1891 — 

 1901. Biometrika, Vol. 7, 190g. 



Dr. Galloway's paper comes from one who has had a long experience 

 in the breeding of canaries for show purposes and is thoroughly familiar with 

 the canary fancy. It forms, as might be expected, a valuable addition to the 

 literature of the subject, and its value is enhanced by the several excellent 

 coloured plates which accompany it. From his records the author has been 

 able to collect material bearing upon the inheritance of crest, of yellow as 

 opposed to buff (a structural feature), of coloured ]>lumage as distinct from 

 clear plumage, and of cinnamon. From his data he agrees with previous work 

 in regarding plainhead as recessive to crest, and buffness as recessive to 

 yellowness. In respect to the inheritance of coloured plumage, either varie- 

 gated or green, as opposed to clear plumage, the author differs from Daven- 

 port who found that clear was a simple recessive to coloured. According to 

 the figures given by Galloway (p. 26) variegated x variegated gave 109 coloured 

 and 12 clear inshead of a proportion of 3 : i. Similarly variegated x clear gave 

 68 variegated and 17 clear instead of the expected equality. Unfortunately no 

 evidence is given that these variegated were all known to be heterozygous, 

 and without such evidence no significance can be attributed to Gallo- 

 w a y 's figures. The facts as to the peculiar inheritance of cinnamon reported 

 by earlier writers are confirmed by G a 1 1 o w a y , and he further points out 

 that there is nothing in his results at variance with the current Mendelian 

 interpretation of these facts. 



In addition to the experimental part the paper contains a good deal of 

 interesting speculation as to the origin of the different varieties of the canary. 

 The author considers that these have all arisen as ,, sports" and that the 

 oldest sport of all was the cinnamon. Directly or indirectly the cinnamon 

 sport is responsible for the many varieties now in existence. The question 

 is discussed from the point of view of the earlier literature and of the known 

 behaviour of cinnamons on crossing. Many records have been collected of 

 wild cinnamon sports from different species of finches as well as of cinnamon 

 canary hybrids and the interesting fact is brought out that these are always, 

 or very nearly always, of the female sex. On the other hand the great majority 

 of wild white sports and white hybrids are males. In conclusion the author 

 j<uts in a plea for better agreement on the nomenclature of characters used in 

 the fanc}', and his discussion of the varieties of crest and the meaning of such 

 terms as "baldness" and "perfect crest", coming from an acknowledged 

 authority, will be welcome to those who are interested in these matters. 



R. C. Punnet t. 



