■TELEGONY AND REVERSION. 159 



not be clue to the influence of the previous sire. The dif- 

 ference in the marking of the croup between the first and 

 second foal might, however, be explained satisfactorily by 

 saying that in the one cnse the antagonism between the 

 units of germ-plasm had been greater than in the other, 

 with the result that the half-zebra Romulus reverted 

 further than the second foal, in which the zebra could only 

 be represented to the extent of about one part to thirty- 

 two of the horse. 



From various experiments made with dogs, fowls, &c., 

 it is evident the amount of the reversion varies greatly, 

 e. g. while some of the cross-bred fowls already referred to 

 resembled not a little jungle fowls, others took after their 

 immediate maternal ancestor, the dark bantam. Again, 

 the offspring between a well-bred yellow collie and a 

 Dalmatian were not whole-coloured or wolf-like in appear- 

 ance, nor yet were they spotted like the sire. They were, 

 in fact, extremely like foxhounds ; on a white ground colour 

 there are in each case several large brown blotches. In 

 this case presumably the reversion has gone the length of 

 the less remote ancestors of the Dalmatian (said to be 

 pointers), but no further. 



In favour of the croup stripes being due to "infection" 

 or telegony is the fact that, with the exception of the 

 New Forest pony's foal, Benazrek's offspring have hitherto 

 been quite devoid of stripes ; and the New Forest pony, 

 having borne a mule foal to a jackass, may very well 

 have been "infected." There is, however, a still stronger 

 argument, viz., that the percentage of chances is against 

 Mulatto producing a foal striped like Darwin's colt. I 

 have been unable to find any records of foals characterised 

 hy stripes over the croup or rump in addition to Darwin's ; 

 and of the many experts who have examined Mulatto's 

 second foal, not one had ever seen a colt so richly striped. 

 It is, of course, possible that thousands of foals have been 

 born with stripes over the hind quarters and loins — stripes 

 so indistinct that they escaped notice. If pronounced re- 

 version towards a striped ancestor is common, then there 



