36 INHERITANCE OF CHARACTERISTICS IN DOMESTIC FOWL. 



to the welfare of the species? The breeder who has only a few individuals 

 of a rare sport feels their loss more than that of normals and the general 

 impression left in his mind is that the sport is less capable of maintaining 

 itself than the normal form. Assembling the data, consisting of about 40 

 individuals of each kind, it appears that the death-rate is not very different 

 in the two lots; the slight excess of that of the syndactyls is sufficiently 

 accounted for by the circumstance that no normals were reared during the 

 period of greatest mortality (the summer), but were destroyed or given 

 away as soon as hatched. It is probable, therefore, that syndactylism, 

 under the conditions of the poultry-yard, has little Ufe and death signifi- 

 cance, but is one of those neutral characters whose existence Darwin clearly 

 recognized. 



