When two breeds are crossed their characters usually become intimately fused
together; but some characters refuse to blend, and are transmitted in an
unmodified state either from both parents or from one. When grey and white
mice are paired, the young are piebald, or pure white or grey, but not of an
intermediate tint; so it is when white and common collared turtle-doves are
paired. In breeding Game fowls, a great authority, Mr. J. Douglas, remarks, "I
may here state a strange fact: if you cross a black with a white game, you get
birds of both breeds of the clearest colour." Sir R. Heron crossed during many
years white, black, brown, and fawn-coloured Angora rabbits, and never once
got these colours mingled in the same animal, but often all four colours in
the same litter. (15/18. Extract of a letter from Sir R. Heron 1838 given me
by Mr. Yarrell. With respect to mice see 'Annal. des Sc. Nat.' tome 1 page
180; and I have heard of other similar cases. For turtle-doves Boitard and
Corbie 'Les Pigeons' etc. page 238. For the Game fowl 'The Poultry Book' 1866
page 128. For crosses of tailless fowls see Bechstein 'Naturges. Deutsch.' b.
3 s. 403. Bronn 'Geschichte der Natur' b. 2 s. 170 gives analogous facts with
horses. On the hairless condition of crossed South American dogs see Rengger
'Saugethiere von Paraguay' s. 152; but I saw in the Zoological Gardens
mongrels, from a similar cross, which were hairless, quite hairy, or hairy in
patches, that is, piebald with hair. For crosses of Dorking and other fowls
see 'Poultry Chronicle' volume 2 page 355. About the crossed pigs, extract of
letter from Sir R. Heron to Mr. Yarrell. For other cases see P. Lucas
'L'Hered. Nat.' tome 1 page 212.) From cases like these, in which the colours
of the two parents are transmitted quite separately to the offspring, we have
all sorts of gradations, leading to complete fusion. I will give an instance:
a gentleman with a fair complexion, light hair but dark eyes, married a lady
with dark hair and complexion: their three children have very light hair, but
on careful search about a dozen black hairs were found scattered in the midst
of the light hair on the heads of all three.
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