Inheritance of Characteristics in Domestic FowlDavenport, Charles Benedict
Science
Inheritance of Characteristics in Domestic Fowl
Davenport, Charles Benedict
Heredity; Poultry
The hypothesis may be further tested in later generations by breeding
together the different sorts of individuals obtained in F2. In
pursuance of such a test I mated various pure black hens with pure
black cocks and those of F1, and, as was to have been expected,
obtained families of different sorts, simply because even pure blacks
have differing gametic constitutions. Thus in pen 824 I mated an
extracted black cock with 3 black hens. All were apparently of the
zygotic constitution _C2J2Nn_, forming gametes _CJN_ and _CJn_. Mated
together these should give the three black combinations _C2J2N2_,
_C2J2Nn_, _C2J2nN_, to one Game, _C2J2n2_. Actually there were
obtained 64 black and 23 Game, 66 to 22 being expectation. In another
pen (pen 804) an F1 cock was mated to various black F2 hens. The
families fall into 2 classes. The cock, of course, produced gametes
_CJN_, _CJn_, _cJN_, _cJn_. With four females like him (Nos. 3902,
3908, 5431, 6043) I got: black 40, white 13, Game 14; expected,
black 38, white 17, Game 13. Three females (Nos. 4715, 4716, 5099)
evidently produced gametes _CJN_, _CJn_. Expectation is that blacks
and Games shall be produced in the proportions of 3 to 1. Actually
30:14 were obtained where 33:11 was expected. All of these results
accord closely with the hypothesis.
The whites obtained in F2 are of 3 types, but in all alike the color
factor is missing. Hence it can not reappear in the offspring, and,
consequently, no colored offspring are to be expected. But, first,
it must be stated that the extracted whites of the F2 generation
are not always of a pure white. Indeed, the parent Silkies are in
some cases not perfectly white, but show traces of "smoke." There
are different degrees of albinism; the coloring enzyme may be absent
to small traces. This variability in degree of albinism is familiar
to all students of albinism in man. My breeding of extracted whites
was done in pen 817 and consisted of a pure white cock (No. 3900)
and 2 hens. Of these 1 (No. 6046) was pure white and produced in a
total of 15 only white offspring, but among those that were described
as unhatched I have recorded traces of pigment in 24 per cent of
the cases. The second hen (No. 3899) had black flecks in the white
plumage. She had 20 offspring, of which 2 (unhatched) are recorded
as having N down, 2 as "blue," and 3 others show traces of black
pigment. Thus, 7 birds in 20, or 35 per cent of all, show more or
less black, even as the albinic mother does. On the whole, however,
omitting from present consideration the phenomenon of incomplete
albinism, we may say that 2 pure albino parents produce only albinic
offspring, while imperfectly albinic parents produce some imperfectly
albinic offspring.
2. SILKIE × WHITE LEGHORN.
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