No. 613] INHERITANCE IN F ANT AIL PIGEON 



7 



highly improbable, since they had the number of feathers 

 characteristic of nearly all other strains of pigeons, and 

 especially of the more common ones. 1 Three Pi pairs 

 were used (two male fantail and one female) but the F 1 in- 

 dividuals were not kept apart (for want of space) and, as 

 no marked difference appeared amongst the F\ progeny 

 when the fantail parent was female or male,. the F\ 's from 

 the reciprocal crosses were mixed together. This is un- 

 fortunate, for fuller and more accurate observations 

 might have revealed significant differences indicative of 

 sex-linked factors. I can only state that if such are here 

 involved their effect is slight, and was not observed ;it 

 the time when the two kinds of F 2 offspring were reared. 



History of the Fantail Eace 

 In his book on "Animals and Plants under Domestica- 

 tion" Darwin has given a great deal of important infor- 

 mation about the origin and characteristics of the fantail. 



" The normal number of tail feathers in the genus Columba is 12; but 

 fantails have from only 12 (as has been asserted) up to, according to 

 MM. Boitard and Corbie, 42. I have counted in one of my own birds 

 33, and at Calcutta Mr. Blyth has counted in an imperfect tail 31 

 feathers. In Madras, as I am informed by Sir W. Elliot, 32 is the 



position and expansion of the tail. The feathers are arranged in an 

 irregular double row; their permanent fan-like expansion and their 

 upward direction are more remarkable characters than their increased 

 number. The tail is capable of the same movements as in other pigeons 



expanded basis than in other pigeons; and in three skeletons there were 

 one or two extra coccygeal vertebras. I have examined many specimens 

 of various colors from different countries, and there was no trace of 

 the oil gland; this is a curious case of abortion. 2 The neck is thin and 

 bowed backwards. The breast is broad and protuberant. The feet are 



1 At least one other of the domesticated races may have more than twelve 



2 "This gland occurs in most birds; but Nitzsch (in his ' Pterylographie, ' 

 1840, p. 55) states that it is absent in two species of Columba, in several 



