ON MEXDELIAX EXPERIMENTS WITH FOWLS. 241 



17. Mendelian Experiments on Fowls. 

 Bv J. T. (.'U.N-NINGHAM, M.A., F.Z.S. 



[Received Octot)er 25, 1911 : Read February G, 1912.] 



I. Experiment 1, — Bankiva J x S'il/ci/ $. 



Crosses between Silky fowls and other breeds have frequently- 

 been tried, both before and since the formulation of the Mendelian 

 doctrine. The silky character of the feathers has always been 

 found to be recessive, and this was noticed before the recently 

 awakened interest in Mendel's theory. Thus Tegetnieier (1867, 

 ]). 224) found that the F^ hybrids of Silkies with other breeds had 

 normal plumage, and Darwin (1876, cliap. vii.) noted the same 

 result in the offspring of a white Silky hen mated to a Spanish 

 cock. 



Bateson (1909, pp. 34, 35, 181) mentions the heredity of the 

 comb, of the silky character, and of the pigmentation of the skin, 

 ilescribing experiments on the latter character in detail. He 

 also discusses (ibid. p. 103) the heredity of the white colour of 

 the Silky. Bateson's lesults and conclusions will be discussed in 

 reference to the residts of the experiment here recorded. C. B. 

 Davenport (1906, p. 55) describes a cross between Silkies and 

 Frizzled fowls, but he reared only the direct offspring of the 

 cross, the Fj generation. 



My experiment was made with a pair of F^s kindly given to 

 me by Mr. D. Seth-Smith. These had been reared in the Society's 

 Gardens from a cross between a male of the Jungle Fowl (Gallus 

 hankiva) and Silky hens, and my attention was called to the 

 interest of this cross by Mr. Frank Finn, F.Z.S. The Jungle 

 cock may not have been perfectly pure bred, but there is no 

 evidence that its jiedigree was impure. The characters of these 

 original parents are as follows : — 



Jungle Fowl J . 

 Comb, single. 

 Colour of plumage, black-red : breast and tail-feathers black, 



neck and saddle hackles j^ellowish I'ed. 

 Skin, unpigmented : comb and wattles red. 

 Legs, clean, not feathered. 

 Feet, normal, four toes on each. 

 No crest on head. 



Silky Fowl $ . 

 Comb, small, rose. 

 Colour of plumage, wdiite. 



Skin, black ; comb and wattles black-red, ear-lobes blue. 

 Legs, feathered. 



Feet, with double hallux on both. 

 Crest of feathers on head behind comb. 

 Paoc. ZooL. Soc— 1912, No. XVI. 16 



