SINGLE- COMB MINORCA AND DARK BRAHMA. 3^ 



and got rose combs in all of the offspring. Here, too, rose comb is domi- 

 nant over single comb. 



Rose comb is a positive variation. It behaves in Mendelian fashion. 

 Although a neomorph, it is dominant. 



3. Foot Color. — Excluding from consideration all but the older hybrids, 

 40 showed foot coloring as follows : 



Black, bluish, willow, or green 9 



White 7 



Yellow 24 



Total 40 



This result indicates that one of the parents (probably the male) is a 

 heterozygote containing traces of some white-legged ancestor. Yellow 

 appears to be dominant over white and black, but to be imperfectly so. The 

 black X yellow gives green or willow; the whitened yellow is "white." 

 Hurst (1905, p. 137) finds that when blue-footed and yellow footed individ- 

 uals are crossed, the offspring have light-blue feet. Yellow is in his case 

 recessive. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



In general, plumage color, foot color, and comb form are inherited in 

 Mendelian fashion. White plumage is dominant, although imperfectly so ; 

 wherefore we have spotted whites and even blues. Rose comb is dominant ; 

 whether perfectly so can not be determined until later. Yellow foot color 

 seems to be dominant, but is imperfectly so, even the yellow legs showing 

 traces of black. 



Series V. — Single-comb Black Minorca and Dark Brahma. 



STATEMENT OF PROBLEM. 



This cross was made to see the result of uniting two races as unlike as 

 possible in origin and general form. 



THE RACES AS A WHOLE. 



The Minorcas have been already described at page 6. The Dark Brahma 

 race was originally imported from India near the home of Gallus bankiva ; 

 yet it differs from it as much as does the Minorca. It is a blocky, short, 

 stout-legged bird, is fluffy in plumage, and has a small pea comb and small 

 wattles. It is, moreover, sexually dimorphic. The male (fig. 19, pi. v) 

 has much more black in its plumage and is very differently marked from 

 the penciled or barred female (fig. 18). The Dark Brahma has so many 

 characters unlike those of the Jungle fowl that it is now thought to be 

 chiefly derived from a different ancestor, namely, that of the Aseel and 

 Indian races. 



