54 



INHERITANCE. 



Chap. Xlll. 



young pigeons, raised from a cross between differently coloured 



birds 



at first of 



acquir 



but in a year 

 feathers of the colour of the other parent ; for 

 tendency to a change of plumage is clearly latent in the youn» 



cattle, some of which 

 Purely bred black and 



bird 



So it is with hornless breeds of 



acquire, as they grow old, small 



fowls, occasionally assume 



white bantams, and some other 



advancing years, the red feathers of the parent-species. I will 

 here add a somewhat different case, as it connects in a striking 

 manner latent characters of two classes. Mr. Hewitt 61 possessed 

 an excellent Sebright gold -laced hen bantam, which, as she 

 became old, grew diseased in her ovaria, and assumed male 

 characters. In this breed the males resemble the females in all 

 respects except in their combs, wattles, spurs, and instincts; 

 hence it might have been expected that the diseased hen would 

 have assumed only those masculine characters which are proper 



to the breed, but she 



quired 



addition, well-arched 



sickle-feathers quite a foot in 



length, 



saddle-feathers 



the 



loins, and hackles on the neck, — ornaments which, as Mr. Hewitt 

 remarks, " would be held as abominable in this breed." The 



Sebright bantam is known 



iginated about the year 



1800 from a cross between a common bantam and a Polish 

 recrossed by a hen-tailed bantam, and carefully selected ; hence 

 there can hardly be a doubt that the sickle-feathers and hackles 

 which appeared in the old hen were 



derived from 



Polish 



fowl or common bantam ; and we thus see that not only certain 

 masculine characters proper to the Sebright bantam, but other 

 masculine characters derived from the first progenitors of the 

 breed, removed by a period of above sixty years, were lying 

 latent in this hen-bird, ready to be evolved as soon as her ovaria 

 became diseased. 



From these several facts it must be admitted that certain 



characters 



pacities, and instincts may lie latent 



vidual, and even in a succession of individuals, without our being 



able 



to detect the least signs of their presence 



We ha\ 7 



61 < 



Tegetmeier. 



62 < 



Journal of Horticulture/ July, 

 1864, p. 38. I have had the oppor- 

 tunity of examining these remarkable meier, 1866, p. 241. 

 feathers through the kindness of Mr. 



The Poultry Book/ by Mr. Teget- 





