44 



INHERITANCE IN POULTRY. 



prominent part in Japanese art. On the authority of Chamberlain (1900), 

 " as great a length of tail as 18 feet has been reached in the tail feathers, 

 but even 12 feet is a rarity. From 7 to 8 or 11 feet is the usual length." 

 Aside from the tail, the fowl has remarkably long hackle and saddle feathers 

 of a golden color. Otherwise it closely approaches the Kuropean black- 

 breasted Red Game, having, like it, retained most of the coloration of Gallus 

 bankiva. 



The Cochin fowl was used in the mating because its tail feathers are 

 notoriously short and consequently afford a strongly opposed allelomorph. 



TABLE OP CHARACTERISTICS. 



REMARKS ON THE CHARACTERISTICS. 



1 . General Plumage Color. — The colors of the male Tosa fowl*are very 

 striking. The head is black ; the feathers of the nape and the hackles are 

 black proximately, but the exposed portion is red, becoming a deep mahogany 

 on the middle of the back. The long saddle feathers are green laced with 

 mahogany. The tail feathers are solid greenish-black. The breast, belly, 

 and under tail coverts are black. The remiges are black, edged exteriorly 

 with red. The coverts are black tipped with mahogany in varying amount, 

 but so as to produce a marked red wing bar. The female Tosa fowl (fig. 30) 

 has a black head and nape and golden hackles. The feathering of the back 

 and saddle and the wing coverts are black mossed with rusty and have a 

 straw-colored shaft. The breast is strongly tinged with buff. The White 

 Cochin, on the other hand, is pure white (fig. 32). 



2. Tail. — The question of the origin of the long tail is of great importance. 

 Any light on this question would illuminate the problem of specific differ- 

 entiation and the origin of specific characteristics in general. 



Hypotheses. In accordance with current theories of specific differentiation 

 we have to recognize that this characteristic may have arisen ; 



(i) As a mutation. As such it would be brought into the same category 

 with frizzled feathers or the cerebral hernia of Polish fowl. Professor E. Ray 

 I/ankester has referred to the condition as a sport. 



(2) As the result of selection. This would be the most popular explana- 

 tion. Romanes (1901, p. 302, fig. 95) includes this case as one of a number 

 of typical proofs of the efficiency of artificial selection. Weismann (1904, 

 II, pp. 124, 326) states definitely that the long tail is due to selection. The 



' Fig. 29, Plate X. 



