individuals, but in some, at any rate, was greater in later generations
than in the earlier. The condition bred true, as pure recessives do; and
when such an impure recessive was mated with a heterozygote with black
skin, the offspring were half pigmented and half recessive, with some
pigment on the abdomen of the latter.

Still more striking was the incomplete segregation in the plumage colour.
The white of the Silky was recessive, all the birds of the _F1_ generation
being fully coloured. In the _F2_ generation there were two recessive
white cocks which when mature showed slight yellow colour across the
loins. These two were mated with coloured hens, and in later generations
all the recessives instead of being pure white, like the Silky, had
reddish-brown pigment distributed as in pile fowls.

[Illustration: PLATE I. Recessive Pile Fowls]

In the hens (Plate I., fig. 1) it was chiefly confined to the breast and
abdomen, and was well developed, not a mere tinge or trace, but a deep
coloration, extending on to the dorsal coverts at the lower edge of the
folded wings. The back and tail were white. In the cocks the colour was
much paler, and extended over the dorsal surface of the wings, where it
was darker than on the back and loins (Plate I., fig. 2). These
pile-coloured fowls when mated together bred true, with individual
differences in the offspring.

The pile fowl as recognised and described by fanciers is dominant in
colour, not recessive as in the case above described. In fact, a recessive
pile does not appear ever to have been mentioned before the publication of
the results of my experiment. From the statements of John Douglas in
_Wright's Book of Poultry_ (London, 1885), it appears that fanciers knew