I 



44 



INHERITANCE. 



Chap. XIII. 



ded of the 



g as this, 

 rossed offer 



Now, so many cases have been 



from 



which are incubators, becoming first-rate sitters, that the 

 appearance of this instinct must be attributed to reversion fr 



crossing. 



One 



of 

 re- 

 om 



g 



so far as to 



say : 



a 



that 



a cross 



between two non-sitting varieties almost invariably produces 

 mongrel that becomes broody, and sits with remarkable steadi 



Pi 



ness. 



Another author, after giving a 



striking 



plained only on the principle 



cannot, however, be 



remarks that the fact can be ei 

 that " two negatives make a positive." It 

 maintained that hens produced from a cross between two non- 

 sitting breeds invariably recover their lost instinct, any more 

 than that crossed fowls or pigeons invariably recover the red or 

 blue plumage of their prototypes. I raised several chickens 

 from a Polish hen by a Spanish cock, — breeds which do not 

 incubate, — and none of the young hens at first recovered their 

 instinct, and this appeared to afford a well-marked exception to 



foregoing rule ; but 



of these hens, the only one which 



preserved, in the third year sat well on her eggs and reared 



a brood of chickens. So 



here we have the appear 



with advancing age of a primitive instinct, in the same manner 



the red plumage of 



G-allus bank 



m 



quired by crossed and purely-bred fowls of 



kinds as they grow old 



The parents of all our domesticated animals were of 



and 



he 



a domesticated 



aboriginally wild in disposition ; 



species is crossed with a distinct species, whether this is a 



domesticated or only tamed animal, the hybrids are often wild 



39 ' The Poultry Book,' by Mr. Teget- 

 meier, 1866, pp. 119, 163. The author, 



Polish fowls, are "good and steady 

 birds to sit/' Mr. B. P. Brent informs 



who remarks on the two negatives me that he raised some good sitting 



(' Journ. of Hort./ 1862, p. 325), states hens by crossing Pencilled Hamburgh 



that two broods were raised from a and Polish breeds. A cross-bred bird 



Spanish cock and Silver-pencilled Ham- from a Spanish non-incubating cock and 



burgh hen, neither of which are incu- Cochin incubating hen is mentioned in 



bators, and no less than seven out of the ' Poultry Chronicle/ vol. iii. p. 13, as 



eight hens in these two broods " showed an " exemplary mother.'' On the other 



a perfect obstinacy in sitting. 



5J 



The 



hand, an exceptional case is given in the 



Rev. E. S. Dixon ('Ornamental Poultry,' « Cottage Gardener,' 1860, p.388, of a hen 

 1848, p. 200) says that chickens reared raised from a Spanish cock and black 

 from a cross between Golden and Black Polish hen which did not incubate. 



C& 



cip ] 



tica 

 bre 



oiai 

 the 



did 



av 



yoi 



we 



lik 

 ex 



to 

 w 



a 



ex 



C 6J 



( 



all 



tan 

 to i 



thei 



C 

 not 



vice 

 kirn 



rais 

 assn 



that 

 ther< 



40 , 



»»% 



41 



A Pril, 



) 



: 







