74 



INHERITANCE c „ Ap w 



imguisn tne two sexes in the parent-species the «„;;,,.T s " 



srs^ have ori T ted under ta «^« £££££ 



of he Game raee we hare the unusual ease of the hens differing 

 each other more than the cocks. In an Indian hreed of a white ™C 



stained with soot the hens invariably have black skins, and thrones " 



covered by a black periosteum, whilst the cocks are never or most r re h- 

 thus charactered. Pigeons offer a more interesting case ■ for The t J 

 sexes rarely differ throughout the whole great family! and the mat nd 



females of the parent-form, the ft Uvia, are ^distinguishable ; yet we hive 



seen that with Pouters the male has the characteristic quality o Ztog 

 more strongly developed than the female ; and in certain suVvaLfe 3 

 the males alone are spotted or striated with black. When male and female 

 English camer-pgeons are exhibited in separate pens, the difference in 

 the development of the wattle over the beak and round the eyes is con- 

 spicuous. So that here we have instances of the appearance of secondary 

 sexual characters in the domesticated races of a species in which such dif- 

 ferences are naturally quite absent. 







i the other hand, secondary sexual characters which pro- 

 perly belong to the species are sometimes quite lost, or greatly 

 diminished, under domestication. We see this in the small size 

 of the tusks in our improved breeds of the pig, in comparison 

 with those of the wild boar. There are sub-breeds of fowls 



hich the 



fine-flowing 



hackles ; and others in which there is no difference in coloui 

 between the two sexes. In some cases the barred plumage 

 which in gallinaceous birds is commonly the attribute of tb< 

 hen, has been transferred to the cock, as in the cuckoo sub 



breeds. In other cases masculine characters have been partly 

 transferred to the female, as with the splendid plumage of the 

 golden-spangled Hamburgh hen, the enlarged comb of the Spanish 

 hen, the pugnacious disposition of the Game hen, and as in the 

 well-developed spurs which occasionally appear in the hens of 

 various breeds. In Polish fowls both sexes are ornamented 

 with a topknot, that of the male being formed of hackle-like 

 feathers, and this is a new male character in the ^enus Gallus. 

 On the whole, as far as I can judge, new characters are more apt 



2S 



Boitard and Corbie, ' Les Pigeons/ p. 173 ; Dr. F. Cliapuis, ' Le Pigeon 





Voyageur Beige,' 1865, p. 87. 



