Experiments with Pigeons 135 
of latent characters in these strains. Despite the fact that some 
of the birds were bought as ‘‘pure’’ stock, i.e. stock that breeds 
true as long as inbred, yet the presence of latent qualities in 
them is admitted. Under these circumstances it does not seem 
to me “contrary to experience” to admit that “pure” strains 
carry latent characters. 
Davenport contrasts the dominance versus the recessiveness 
of new characters with the original characters of fowls as indi- 
cated by their presence in the wild parent species of Indian game 
and of Aseel. He finds that the new characters dominate as 
often as they are recessive. Hence there is no reason to suppose 
that new characters are at a disadvantage in respect to dominance 
as contrasted with old characters. 
Experiments with Pigeons 
Darwin has given the results of several experiments in crossing 
pigeons. There are also several other recorded results of hy- 
bridizing races of pigeons. The hybrids (F,) appear to be 
variable in color, but some of the markings peculiar to the wild 
Rock Pigeon are apt to appear. For example: A male ‘ Nun” 
that is white, with head, tail, and primary wing feathers black, 
was crossed with a red “‘Tumbler.” Neither parent had any 
blue in the plumage, nor bars on the tail or wings. Of the sev- 
eral young, one was red over the back, but the tail was as blue 
as that of the Rock Pigeon; two others were quite similar; a 
fourth was brownish and the wings showed a trace of a double 
bar; a fifth was pale blue over the back, breast, and tail, but 
the neck and primary wing feathers were reddish; the wing 
had two distinct red bars. 
When a black ‘“‘Barb” was crossed with a red ‘‘Spot,” the 
young were black, or dark, or pale brown, sometimes slightly 
piebald with white. Six of these birds had double wing bars, 
etc. When a black Barb was crossed with a snow-white Fan- 
tail, some of the hybrids were black with a few white feathers, 
others were dark, reddish brown, and others snow-white. None 
of them had wing bars. 
