X 



40 



INHERITANCE. 



Chap. XIII. 



eluded fr 



crossing. 



As this conclusion seems to me highly 



and novel, I will give the evidence 



My 



- 



■ 



numerous experiments, by MM. Boitard and Corbie having stated that 

 when they crossed certain breeds, pigeons coloured like the wild 0. livia 

 or the common dovecot, namely, slaty-blue, with double black wing-bars' 

 sometimes chequered with black, white loins, the tail barred with *black 

 with the outer feathers edged with white, were almost invariably produced 

 The breeds which I crossed, and the remarkable results attained, have 

 been fully described in the sixth chapter. I selected pigeons, belonging 

 to true and ancient breeds, which had not a trace of blue or any of the 

 above specified marks; but when crossed, and their mongrels recrossed 

 young birds were continually produced, more or less plainly coloured slaty- 

 blue, with some or all of the proper characteristic marks. I may recall 

 to the reader's memory one case, namely, that of a pigeon, hardly dis- 

 tinguishable from the wild Shetland species, the grandchild of a red-spot 

 white fantail, and two black barbs, from any of which, when purely-bred 

 the production of a pigeon coloured like the wild C. livia would have been 

 almost a prodigy. 



I was thus led to make the experiments, recorded in the seventh 

 chapter, on fowls. I selected long-established, pure breeds, in which there 

 was not a trace of red, yet in several of the mongrels feathers of this 

 colour appeared; and one magnificent bird, the offspring of a black 

 Spanish cock and white Silk hen, was coloured almost exactly like the 

 wild Gallus hankiva. All who know anything of the breeding of poultry 

 will admit that tens of thousands of pure Spanish and of pure white Silk 

 fowls might have been reared without the appearance of a red feather. 



The fact, given on the 



Mr 



of the frequent 



appearance, in mongrel fowls, of pencilled or transversely-barred feathers, 

 like those common to many gallinaceous birds, is likewise apparently a 

 case of reversion to a character formerly possessed by some ancient pro- 

 genitor of the family. I owe to the kindness of this same excellent 

 observer the inspection of some neck-hackles and tail-feathers from a 

 hybrid between the common fowl and a very distinct species, the Gallus 

 varius; and these feathers are transversely striped in a conspicuous 

 manner with dark metallic blue and grey, a character which could not 

 have been derived from either immediate parent. 



I have been informed 



Mr 



Aylesbury drake and a black so-called Labrador duck, both of which 

 are true breeds, and he obtained a young drake closely like the mallard 



(^ 



{A. moschata, Linn.) 



breeds, namely, white and slate-coloured ; and these I am informed breed 

 true, or nearly true. But the Eev. W. D. Fox 'tells me that, by putting 

 a white drake to a slate-coloured duck, black birds, pied with white, like 

 the wild musk-duck, were always produced. 



We have seen in the fourth chapter, that the so-called Himalayan 

 rabbit, with its snow-white body, black ears, nose, tail, and feet, breeds 





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