Unexfected Anomalies in Breeding. 125 



first, proper mating of the parents ; and, secondly, the rearing to proper size and condition of the 

 chickens ; of which we are now considering the first. Hours and hours are spent over this matter 

 by the most successful breeders. Each hen is to be carefully looked over, point by point, both her 

 merits and her defects being carefully taken into consideration, until sufficient for one pen presenting 

 the same general characteristics can be grouped together, after which the cock has to be chosen to 

 accompany them. Whatever faults the hens may have must in him be carefully compensated, or at 

 least absent, or they will be sure to be aggravated by the double influence. When put together, 

 the scrutiny is repeated again and again, and lijliat will probably be produced by each bird thus 

 mated must be most carefully considered ; for everything must have a definite object in this 

 business, and if any one thinks such study ridiculous he had better not attempt to breed prize poultry. 

 Often, after many an inspection has taken place and only confirmed the first impression, some 

 hitherto overlooked feature will suddenly strike the eye, and at once necessitate mating with quite 

 another bird to that originally intended. In the case of adult birds, what they have already bred 

 with the same or other mates must also be taken into consideration. A hen may have been 

 matched up the previous year apparently with judgment, yet the produce may have been most 

 grievously disappointing, for such mishaps may occur occasionally to any amateur. In such cases. 

 by studying the character of the unforeseen result, and tracing the probable causes, success for ne.xt 

 season with the same bird, but difterently paired, may be almost ensured, and the loss thus more 

 than repaid. Some of these unexpected disappointments are very curious, and for a long time were 

 thought unaccountable. They usually occur at the commencement of a strain, or when a cock is 

 purchased for fresh blood to recruit an old one. For instance, supposing a really first-class Spanish 

 cock to be mated with some of the very best hens which can be procured ; if the two strains thus 

 bred together are widely distinct, or have no blood already common to both, it may very possibly 

 happen that nearly all the chickens are more or less red in the face, though both parents are 

 unexceptionable. Again, we knew a good strain of Dark Brahmas some years ago, which usually 

 bred beautiful pullets ; but when crossed into others, and into one other in particular, almost always 

 produced chickens so splashed with great patches of pure white as to be totally worthless from a 

 fancy point of view. In the same way, two alien strains of Buff Cochins will occasionally breed 

 pullets with a great deal of black in the hackle — far more than is always found in a portion of 

 Buff chickens— though both parents are perfectly pure in colour; and we could add other 

 illustrations which have come within our knowledge, testifying to the same fact. 



These anomalous variations for a long time puzzled breeders, and were indeed mysterious, 

 being apparently opposed to their fundamental axiom that " like produces like ; " but the fact 

 hinted at in our last chapter, as established by Mr. Darwin, has cleared up the mystery, and brought 

 such apparently chance occurrences within the domain of law. Mr. Darwin has in fact shown them 

 to be the effect of the tendency to reversion which is so well-known to every amateur, but shown in a 

 manner not before understood, and exemplifying in rather a striking manner the services rendered 

 from time to time to merely practical purposes by the purely scientific investigator. " It has long been 

 notorious," says this eminent naturalist, "that hybrids and mongrels often revert to one or both of 

 their parent forms, after an interval of frofn two to seven or eight, or, according to some authorities, 

 even a greater number of generations. But that the act of crossing in itself gives an impulse 

 towards reversion, as shown by the appearance of lotig-lost characters, has never I believe been 

 hitherto proved. The proof lies in certain peculiarities which do not characterise the immediat.- 

 parents, and therefore cannot have been derived from them, frequently appearing in the offsp -i^- of 

 two breeds when crossed, which never appear, or appear with extreme rarity, in these breeds so long 

 as they are precluded from crossing." This fact Mr. Darwin then illustrates by many examples. 



