Lastly, Professor Jaeger has given (13/39. 'Darwin'sche Theorie und ihre
Stellung zu Moral und Religion' page 85.) a good case with pigs. He crossed
the Japanese or masked breed with the common German breed, and the offspring
were intermediate in character. He then re-crossed one of these mongrels with
the pure Japanese, and in the litter thus produced one of the young resembled
in all its characters a wild pig; it had a long snout and upright ears, and
was striped on the back. It should be borne in mind that the young of the
Japanese breed are not striped, and that they have a short muzzle and ears
remarkably dependent.]
A similar tendency to the recovery of long lost characters holds good even
with the instincts of crossed animals. There are some breeds of fowls which
are called "everlasting layers," because they have lost the instinct of
incubation; and so rare is it for them to incubate that I have seen notices
published in works on poultry, when hens of such breeds have taken to sit.
(13/40. Cases of both Spanish and Polish hens sitting are given in the
'Poultry Chronicle' 1855 volume 3 page 477.) Yet the aboriginal species was of
course a good incubator; and with birds in a state of nature hardly any
instinct is so strong as this. Now, so many cases have been recorded of the
crossed offspring from two races, neither of which are incubators, becoming
first-rate sitters, that the reappearance of this instinct must be attributed
to reversion from crossing. One author goes so far as to say, "that a cross
between two non-sitting varieties almost invariably produces a mongrel that
becomes broody, and sits with remarkable steadiness." (13/41. 'The Poultry
Book' by Mr. Tegetmeier 1866 pages 119, 163. The author, who remarks on the
two negatives ('Journ. of Hort.' 1862 page 325), states that two broods were
raised from a Spanish cock and Silver-pencilled Hamburgh hen, neither of which
are incubators, and no less than seven out of eight hens in these two broods
"showed a perfect obstinacy in sitting." The Rev. E.S. Dixon ('Ornamental
Poultry' 1848 page 200) says that chickens reared from a cross between Golden
and Black Polish fowls, are "good and steady birds to sit." Mr. B.P. Brent
informs me that he raised some good sitting hens by crossing Pencilled
Hamburgh and Polish breeds. A cross-bred bird from a Spanish non-incubating
cock and Cochin incubating hen is mentioned in the 'Poultry Chronicle' volume
3 page 13, as an "exemplary mother." On the other hand, an exceptional case is
given in the 'Cottage Gardener' 1860 page 388 of a hen raised from a Spanish
cock and black Polish hen which did not incubate.) Another author, after
giving a striking example, remarks that the fact can be explained only on the
principle that "two negatives make a positive." It cannot, however, be
maintained that hens produced from a cross between two non-sitting breeds
invariably recover their lost instinct, any more than that crossed fowls or
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