unusual event when a silver male is produced; so that nothing would be
easier, if desired, than to make a breed of dragons with blue males and
silver females. This tendency is indeed so strong that when Mr.
Tegetmeier at last got a silver male and matched him with one of the
silver females, he expected to get a breed with both sexes thus
coloured; he was however disappointed, for the young male reverted to
the blue colour of his grandfather, the young female alone being
silver. No doubt with patience this tendency to reversion in the males,
reared from an occasional silver male matched with a silver hen, might
be eliminated, and then both sexes would be coloured alike; and this
very process has been followed with success by Mr. Esquilant in the
case of silver turbits.
With fowls, variations of colour, limited in their transmission to the
male sex, habitually occur. When this form of inheritance prevails, it
might well happen that some of the successive variations would be
transferred to the female, who would then slightly resemble the male,
as actually occurs in some breeds. Or again, the greater number, but
not all, of the successive steps might be transferred to both sexes,
and the female would then closely resemble the male. There can hardly
be a doubt that this is the cause of the male pouter pigeon having a
somewhat larger crop, and of the male carrier pigeon having somewhat
larger wattles, than their respective females; for fanciers have not
selected one sex more than the other, and have had no wish that these
characters should be more strongly displayed in the male than in the
female, yet this is the case with both breeds.
The same process would have to be followed, and the same difficulties
encountered, if it were desired to make a breed with the females alone
of some new colour.
Lastly, our fancier might wish to make a breed with the two sexes
differing from each other, and both from the parent species. Here the
difficulty would be extreme, unless the successive variations were from
the first sexually limited on both sides, and then there would be no
difficulty. We see this with the fowl; thus the two sexes of the
pencilled Hamburghs differ greatly from each other, and from the two
sexes of the aboriginal Gallus bankiva; and both are now kept constant
to their standard of excellence by continued selection, which would be
impossible unless the distinctive characters of both were limited in
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