" BLENDING " INHEEITANCE 



scribed as a non-Mendelian, non-segregating 

 type of inheritance, but recent discoveries place 

 this interpretation in doubt. Let us first con- 

 sider what are the observed facts and after- 

 ward the interpretation. 



Fig. 42 shows the skulls of three rabbits, — 

 of the father at the left, of the mother at the 

 right, and that of the son between. Notice the 

 fully intermediate or blended character of the 

 son's skull as regards both absolute dimensions 

 and proportions. The intermediate character 

 was possessed also by the next generation of 

 offspring. Now this same cross, while pro- 

 ducing a blend in size and ear-length, was 

 yielding dominance and segregation of coat- 

 characters. Fig. 43 shows a picture of the 

 rabbit with the small skull in the cross just 

 described. He was an albino and his fur was 

 long. The mother, which had the large skull, 

 was a sooty-yellow rabbit, with short fur and 

 long ears (see Fig. 44). The son is shown 

 in Fig. 45. His fur was black and short, the 

 albinism and long fur of his father having 

 become recessive in the cross in accordance 

 with Mendel's law. The pigmentation is also 



129 



