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68 



INHERITANCE. 



Chap. XIV. 



male pheasant, judging from Mr. Hewitt's descriptions, 17 and from the 

 hybrids which I have seen, preponderates over the domestic fowl ; but 

 the latter, as far as colour is concerned, has considerable power of trans- 

 mission, for hybrids raised from five differently coloured hens differed 

 greatly in plumage. I formerly examined some curious hybrids in the 

 Zoological Gardens, between the Penguin variety of the common duck 



and the Egyptian goose 



JEgyptiacus) ; and although I will not 



assert that the domesticated variety preponderated over the natural species 

 yet it had strongly impressed its unnatural upright figure on these hybrids! 



I am aware that such cases as the foregoing have been ascribed by various 

 authors, not to one species, race, or individual being prepotent over the 

 other in impressing its character on its crossed offspring, but to such 

 rules as that the father influences the external characters and the mother 

 the internal or vital organs. But the great diversity of the rules given by 

 various authors almost proves their falseness. Dr. Prosper Lucas has 

 fully discussed this point, and has shown 18 that none of the rules (and 

 I could add others to those quoted by him) apply to all animals. Similar 

 rules have been enounced for plants, and have been proved by Gartner 19 

 to be all erroneous. If we confine our view to the domesticated races of 

 a single species, or perhaps even to the species of the same genus, some 

 such rules may hold good; for instance, it seems that in reciprocally 

 crossing various breeds of fowls the male generally gives colour; 20 but 

 conspicuous exceptions have passed under my own eyes. In sheep it seems 

 that the ram usually gives its peculiar horns and fleece to its crossed 

 offspring, and the bull the presence or absence of horns. 



In the following chapter on Crossing I shall have occasion to show that 

 certain characters are rarely or never blended by crossing, but are trans- 



mule and the hinny, I am aware that 



17 Mr. Hewitt, who has had such 



this has generally been attributed to great experience in raising these hy- 

 brids, says (' Poultry Book,' by Mr. 



the sire and dam transmitting their 



characters differently ; but Colin, who Tegetmeier, 1866, pp. 165-167) that in 



has given in his 'TraitePhys. Comp./ all, the head was destitute of wattles, 



torn. ii. pp. 537-539, the fullest descrip- comb, and ear-lappets ; and all closely 



tion which I have met with of these resembled the pheasant in the shape of 



reciprocal hybrids, is strongly of the tail and general contour of the body, 



opinion that the ass preponderates in These hybrids were raised from hens 



both crosses, but in an unequal degree. of several breeds by a cock-pheasant ; 



This is likewise the conclusion of but another hybrid, described by Mr. 



Flourens, and of Bechstein in his Hewitt, was raised from a hen-peasant ; 



' Naturgeschichte Deutschlands/ b. i. by a silver-laced Bantam cock, and 



s. 294. The tail of the hinny is much this possessed a rudimental comb and 



more like that of the horse than is the w T attles. 

 tail of the mule, and this is generally 

 accounted for by the males of both 



18 ' L'Hered. Nat.,' torn. ii. book ii. 



ch. i. 



species transmitting with greater power 19 ' Bastarderzeugung/ s. 264--bb. 



Naudin ( 



this part of their structure ; but a com- 

 pound hybrid which I saw in the 

 Zoological Gardens, from a mare by at a similar conclusion. 



Archives du 



Museum/ torn. i. p. 148) has arrived 



a hybrid ass-zebra, closely resembled 

 its mother in its tail. 



20 < Cottase Gardener/ 1856, pp. 10b 



i 



. 











137. 



