PHENOMENA AND PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING 463 



This problem is easy if his standard considers few characters, 

 becoming increasingly difficult as the number of characters con- 

 sidered is increased, and the breeder's ideals of quality in stock 

 advance. The problem of the breeder who works to a standard is 

 essentially the same, whether that standard be, as yet, imperfectly 

 conceived in his own mind, or elaborated, agreed upon, and estab- 

 lished by an organization of breeders, — whether the variety is as 

 yet unformed or has been brought to close conformity with a high 

 standard ; but in the first case he may sometimes use parents 

 quite unlike (in external appearance) the offspring that he hopes 

 to secure by a combination of their differing characters, and in the 

 other, if he uses a parent that is markedly unlike the desired t3'pe 

 in the offspring, it is in the hope of securing either the direct 

 inheritance of some quality in it, or a blending of some of its 

 characters with those of the stock on which it is bred. The de- 

 velopment and condition of such a variety as the Barred Plymouth 

 Rock afford illustrations of all kinds of combinations to secure, 

 in a variety of poultry, likeness to a desired type. The early strains 

 were formed (i) by a number of different crosses of parents quite 

 unlike ; (2) by selection of such of those cross-bred offspring as 

 most nearly approached that type; (3) in a particular strain, by the 

 late introduction of blood of a race radically unlike ^ those used in 

 any of the original crosses, but very like the (supposed) original 

 type of fowl ; (4) by a general distribution and mingling of this 

 strain with others; and, finally, (5) by the device of a double 

 system of mating to provide for each sex of the Exhibition type 

 just the kind of parents required to produce it. 



The sexes equal in respect to the transmission of characters. 

 Though consideration of particular cases often indicates differences 

 in the influences of the sexes in the transmission of characters, 



1 The Black-Red Game has been much used by breeders of recently made 

 varieties to restore vigor and stamina where they have deteriorated through 

 neglect of those qualities in the keen pursuit of special features of desired 

 types. A favorite theory with many of the older breeders was that the Black- 

 Red Game, by reason of its close relation to the original type and through cen- 

 turies of careful breeding for shape and stamina, could give to the newer races 

 stamina and stability of type which would remain even when the superficial Game 

 characters and the color had been bred out. The theory is not altogether fanciful, 

 though it may not be demonstrable. 



