No. 555] CASTRATION IN BROWN LEGHORNS 163 



vermiculations and so is not strictly comparable with 

 that due to heterozygosis. However this may be, stip- 

 pling is normally a female or a juvenile male character. 

 The males corresponding to these two types of females 

 usually have uniformly colored feathers ventrally. The 

 dorsal regions are less constant in type, being usually 

 uniformly colored or else striped. In other breeds the 

 feather pattern may be alike in the two sexes. 



The question of behavior depends upon so many condi- 

 tions, that only a few of the numerous reactions have 

 been mentioned in the table. 



The following comments are intended to apply only to 

 Brown Leghorns. 



While the comb of the female usually lops to one side 

 or the other, it does not always do so. There are indi- 

 cations, moreover, that by proper matings this character 

 could be transferred to the male. 



Spurs are usually absent from the female, yet they are 

 occasionally well developed. Their presence can not be 

 taken as a certain indication of the assumption of a male 

 character by the female, for there was an old Scottish 

 race in which both sexes were spurred. Nor need they 

 indicate the presence of an abnormal ovary, for in one 

 case in which they had become well developed at 9 months 

 of age, the hen proved to be a splendid layer. These 

 spurred hens are probably due to the presence or absence 

 in the germ plasm of some definite determiner, as certain 

 of my breeding experiments indicate. 



The plumage color within certain limits is variable, so 

 that it is a little difficult to describe briefly. American 

 fanciers recognize only one type of plumage color for 

 each sex, that described in the " American Standard of 

 Perfection," but beside the ' ' Standard" female there is 

 one in which the salmon breast is replaced by one of 

 nearly the same color as the back. Beside the "Stand- 

 ard" male is one in which the striping of the hackle and 

 saddle feathers is lost, and third, one in which there is 

 some red in the under parts. It is evident, moreover, 



