370 LOTSY AND KUIPER, A PRELIM.STATEMENT OF THE RESULTS OF MR. 
strain from a Sebright-Hamburgh cross, made by him, the bird was 
again examined and it turned out that the exceptional size was a post- 
mortem modification due to extension of the skin, while stuffing ; the 
neck especially had been very unnaturally elongated. Measures taken 
of the wings, proved these to be of the same size as those of the other 
descendents, so that the bird, after all, had no abnormal size at all. 
A very peculiar aberration had been noted already by MR. HOUWINK 
and the junior author, when the birds were still in Meppel: the appea- 
rance of a few chicks with leg-feathering. As none of the wild species 
of Gallus are reported to have legfeathering and as Mr. PERCY R. 
Lowe kindly informed us, that no trace of leg-feathering, even after 
especial attention was given to this point, could be discovered on any 
species of Gallus in the South Kensington Museum, the appearance of 
this character in the descendents of the birds of Mr. HOUWINK, both 
of which were clean-legged, looked very much like a mutation, as leg- 
feathering among domestic poultry is generally looked upon as a domi- 
nant character. A perusal of the litterature however taught us that 
PUNNETT and Barry !) had shown that legfeathering may be crypto- 
merously present in apparently clean-legged birds. In the cross of a 
Gold pencilled (recte: crossbarred) Hambutg with Langshan, of which 
the first race has clean, the latter feathered legs, there appeared in the 
F, one clean-legged bird and 11 featherlegged ones. 
This clean-legged bird, a hen, however, behaved on crossing as 
though she had feathered legs. With her featherlegged brother she 
produced 55 chickens of which those with feathered legs were almost 
exactly 3 times as numerous as those with clean legs. 
In the following year she was mated with a pure cleanlegged Ham- 
burgh; of the 25 chicks produced, 13 had feathered and 12 had clean 
legs, so that feathered leg’ evidently differs from clean leg in a 
single factor. ; 
PUNNETT concludes that , occasionally a heterozygous bird, ey fail 
to put up any leg-feathering”. 
The first record of a chick with leg-feathering among Mr. Hou- 
WINK’S , bankiva’s’’, dates from 1918; it was noticed in the 3d genera- 
tion (experiment 503), children of the F, birds 205.2 9 and 205.1 3, 
both recorded as clean-legged. | 
4 
1) Journal of Genetics Vol. 7 1918 p. 209 

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