176 MR. J. T. CU^TNINGHAM ON RESULTS OF A 



the yellow chicks in it died in the first week, so there were no 

 reeessives in phimage-colour among the survivors. The pa.rents 

 of the second brood were F., I 2 & 3 d" X F., II 2 & 4 $ , the cocks 

 recessive, the females coloured. As the coloured hens were 

 known to be heterozygous for plumage-colour, it does not much 

 matter for this character which of the cocks or hens were parents 

 of individual chicks. Fj II 5 was recessive male, F^II 6&7 

 recessive females. These all had some brown on the tliroat in 

 the first mature plumage in difi^erent degrees, most in F^II 5, 

 in which it was considerable. There were seven chicks in the 

 brood, the other four being coloured, but Nos. 1 ife 2 died in 

 the first week. No. 3, a cock, had plumage of remarkably rich 

 colour, a port-wine red on the sadille and shoulders, lich orange 

 neck and saddle-hackles, a deep glossy black on breast and tail. 



Altogether nine broods were hatched in F^, the parents in 

 each case being one pile and one coloured. Of these F,'s, 

 16 were pile and 25 coloured, a proportion not a.pproa,cl]ing very 

 closely to the equality expected on the Mendelian theory. All 

 the piles or reeessives had more or less colour on throat or 

 throat and breast, some only a little, while F^V 1 2, hatched 

 June 13, had in July, wlien about 5 weeks old, deep and con- 

 tinuous brown on thi'oat and brea.st and extending in traces 

 over the whole ventral surface. The mother of this one was 

 Fglll 9 2 J which had, at any rate when examined the previous 

 year, only a little brown on throat. In the hens the amount 

 of brown usually increases somewhat as they grow older. 



The birds of F^ kept for breeding vv^ere : — 



FjII 3 c?, coloured — very richlv coloured. 



F,n 5d, pile. 



F^IV 3$, coloured. 



Fj V 1 $ , pile — much brown on breast and abdomen. 



F, VIII 6 2 , coloured, silky. 



F^VIII 7 J, coloured, silky. 



F^VIII 8 J, coloured normal. 



Seven broods were hatched from these, forming the F, gene- 

 ration. Of these, F, III, F. IV, and F, V were offspring of 

 parents similar in colour. The parents of Fg IV were F^II 5 c? 

 pile and F^ VIII 4 $ pile. This mating was made to ascertain if 

 any segregation took place between the brown and the white of the 

 pile when they were bred together. Eight chicks v.'eie hatched 

 and they were all pile. Thei-e were foiu' cocks and four hens. 

 a.nd in the sexually immature condition, after they were fledged, 

 all had more or less brown on the brenst, though the amount of 

 colour varied from " considerable " in F. IV 3 c? to very slight 

 in F. IV 7 & 8, both 2 ■ This shows, I think, that the piles 

 breed true, that there is no segregation between the brown and 

 white. 



The four broods— F.I, F. II, F. VI, and F, VII— were off- 

 spring of matings of pile with coloured as in previous generations, 



