1903. ] JAPANESE LONG-TAILED FOWLS. 249 
I think it is tolerably certain that these experiments explain 
the method adopted by the Japanese in the production of tail- 
feathers of extreme length, and that much that has hitherto been 
mysterious and inexplicable in the matter is now explained. The 
statement that the feathers do not moult or moult only once in 
three years, or that the Japanese have a secret method of pre- 
venting the moult, is explained if we assume that the Japanese 
fancier strokes the feather as Mr. Sparks stated, and that he either 
deliberately pulls a feather out when it shows signs of diminishing 
growth, or that the feather is automatically pulled out in the 
process when its growth diminishes ; because, as I have shown, the 
attachment of the feather is very feeble when the growth is ceasing. 
As arule, when a feather is pulled out its successor immediately 
sprouts again, and its growth is afterwards continued regardless 
of the moulting-season. The results of my experiments in fact 
are in complete agreement with the statement of the matter 
furnished by Mr. Sparks. 
The long-tailed cock in its perfection, therefore, is neither a sport 
nor a br eed, but a product of artificial cultivation ; and the excessive 
growth of the feathers is the result of stimulation applied to the 
individual. The most important part of the stimulation is not 
the mere pulling of the feather, but the extraction of it which 
causes the growth of its successor. 
On the other hand, the method of treatment is applied not to 
any breed at random, but to a particular breed which includes 
several varieties of colour, and apparently two varieties of comb. 
It can scarcely be supposed that the same treatment applied to 
another breed would produce results at all comparable, and we 
therefore may conclude that in this special breed there is a special 
and extraordinary tendency to growth in the tail-feathers and 
saddle-hackles. The congenital peculiarity is evidenced in the 
case of Cock A in my experiment. The question therefore arises, 
whether this congenital peculiarity has been developed entirely by 
spontaneous variations and selection, or whether it has been 
influenced by the excessive growth artificially induced in every 
generation. It is probable enough that in most cases a cock which 
showed the most rapid and most prolonged growth was used for 
breeding, but it is by no means certain that the cocks so used 
were never subjected to the artificial treatment. The probabilities 
ave rather the other way, that specimens which had been found 
to respond to the treatment were used for breeding. It is a 
significant fact that this is the only breed of long-tailed fowls in 
existence; and that the method of treatment applied to it is so 
elaborate and so absolutely artificial, requiring daily attention for 
months and years. If a similar result could have been obtained 
by selection alone, it is difficult to understand why poultry fanciers 
in some part of the world have not made the discovery. 
The results of this inv estigation are-remarkably in agreement 
with the theory advocated in my book ‘Sexual Dimorphism in the 
Animal Kingdom.’ In that book I pointed out that wherever 
