The genetic and the operative evidence relating to secondary sexual charactersMorgan, Thomas Hunt
Science
The genetic and the operative evidence relating to secondary sexual characters
Morgan, Thomas Hunt
Genetics; Poultry; Sex (Biology)
The game cock is shown in plate 1, figure 1, and plate 4, figure 1. The
wattles and comb had been removed from the bird. The yellow-red back and
saddle are to be noted. The upper tail coverts and sickle feathers are
black, as is the tail. These parts are shorter in the game than in other
races, being one of the points selected for. The dorso-anterior edge of
the wing is black, this color meeting across the middle of the back.
Below this black area comes the red wing bow, followed by a double row
of blue-black feathers. The exposed portions of the secondaries are
brown, of the primaries black with green margin. The breast and entire
lower surface is black. The legs are greenish, the bill black and
yellow, the iris yellow.
The hen of the Black-Breasted game (plate 1, figure 2) is light
yellowish-brown. The back, saddle, and wing coverts are golden brown,
finely penciled with darker brown or black. The hackle is penciled; it
has a yellow border (without barbules); the back is more brown, the
forepart of the breast is salmon, the more posterior parts lighter
salmon. The sides of the body under and below the wings are stippled
gray.
The Sebright male is represented in plate 1, figure 3. Photographs of
the male and the female are given in plate 4, figures 3 and 4. Most of
the feathers have a yellow center and a black border. Such feathers are
said to be laced. The details of the different regions are shown in the
feather plates, 6 and 8.
A. THE F₁ BIRDS.
The F₁ birds were remarkably uniform. The sexual dimorphism is slight,
as a comparison of the male and female in plate 4, figures 5, 6, will
show. In the female the body feathers are penciled but very mossy, and
this holds for the male too, except that in the hackle, back, and
saddle, a change in color accompanies the change in shape, as seen in
the individual feathers in the feather chart (plate 7, figure 1). If
there are any sex-linked factors involved in the cross, we should expect
different types of F₁ hens in the direct cross and its reciprocal,
because in one case the F₁ hen gets her single X chromosome from one
father, and in the other case, the reciprocal cross, from the other.
Unfortunately no careful comparison can now be made, because the crosses
were carried out in different years and the changes due to age may have
affected the color sufficiently to obscure such slight difference that
may have existed. But the effects of such factors, if present, are very
small, since the birds seemed to be the same, regardless of the way in
which the cross was made. In the F₂ counts, although an attempt has been
made to keep apart the birds obtained in the two crosses (_i. e._, the
direct and the reciprocal crosses), it is very doubtful if the two
groups show any significant differences.
B. DESCRIPTION OF F₂ BIRDS.
All together there are 72 hens, 29 hen-feathered males, and 26
cock-feathered males, as shown in table 1:
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