446 MR. D. SETH-SMITH ON '^ INTENSIVE " POULTRY-HOUSES. 



April 4th, 1916. 



Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S., Vice-President,, 

 in the Chair. 



Mr. J. T. Cunningham, M.A., F.Z.S., exhibited a number of 

 skins of fowls produced in the course of six generations descended 

 from a cross between a male Gallus hankiva and a female' Silky 

 fowl. The cross was made at the Society's Gardens in 1910, and 

 Mr. Cunningham's specimens were bred from a pair of the F I's 

 given to him in 1911. 



The chief points illustrated were : — 



(1) The production of a recessive pile, instead of pure white 

 recessives ; in the pile the female had reddish brown on the 

 breast and abdomen, the male had no colour on the abdomen, 

 but yellow on the back and loins. In the first mature plumage 

 both sexes had reddish brown on the breast. 



(2) The production of two types in the coloured dominants, as 

 well as individual variations. One type was dark, the other 

 light : in the former there was an excess of the black colour, 

 especially about the head, in the latter the head was yellow. 

 The difference was more conspicuous in the females than in the 

 males. 



Individual differences were shown in compiling a. hen with 

 vinous-red colour over a considerable part of the body, especially 

 the breast and wings, and another in which there was no vinous 

 colour, but a neutral drab. These facts seem to indicate that 

 segregation occurs between colour and white in Mendelian 

 fashion, but that the segi'egation is not complete, that the colour 

 is not a permanent unit, but undergoes subdivision. 



Mr. D. Seth-Smith, F.Z.S., Curator of Birds, exhibited lantern- 

 slide photographs of " intensive " poultry-houses, and remarked 

 that the Council had decided to hold an exhibition of laying 

 hens, kept on the intensive system, with a view to educating the 

 public to the possibility and importance of keeping poidtry for 

 egg-production, even though their accommodation was limited 

 to a subui'ban garden or even a back-yard. The system was 

 explained, and stress laid upon the importance of correct feeding 

 and suflicient exercise, the latter being pi-ovided by the birds 

 be'ng compelled to scratch for their grain, which must be buried 

 under deep litter. 



The Exhibitor stated that the houses were of three sizes, to 

 accommodate from six to thirty birds, and had been lent to the 

 Society by Mr. Randolph Meech, -who Avas the pioneer of the 

 system in this country. The exhibition would be open to 

 the public on April 8th, and some two hundred birds would be 

 on view. 



