the character of the coat being distinctly correlated with characters
transmitted both by the albino and by the colored parent." When hybrids
produced by the cross described by Darbishire are paired, they produce
dancers in the proportion of about one to five.

Bateson (5 p. 93, footnote), in discussing the results obtained by Haacke,
von Guaita, and Darbishire, writes: "As regards the waltzing character,
von Guaita's experiments agree with Darbishire's in showing that it was
always recessive to the normal. No individual in F1 [thus the first hybrid
generation is designated] or in families produced by crossing F1 with the
pure normal, waltzed. In Darbishire's experiments F1 x F1 [first hybrids
mated] gave 8 waltzers in 37 offspring, indicating 1 in 4 as the probable
average. From von Guaita's matings in the form DR x DR the totals of
families were 117 normal and 21 waltzers.... There is therefore a large
excess of normals over the expected 3 to 1. This is possibly due to the
delicacy of the waltzers, which are certainly much more difficult to rear
than normals are. The small number in von Guaita's litters makes it very
likely that many were lost before such a character as this could be
determined."

Bateson does not hazard a guess at the origin of the dancer, but merely
remarks (5 p. 86) that the exact physiological basis of the dancing
character is uncertain and the origin of this curious variation in
behavior still more obscure. "Mouse fanciers have assured me," he
continues, "that something like it may appear in strains inbred from the
normal type, though I cannot find an indubitable case. Such an occurrence
may be nothing but the appearance of a rare recessive form. Certainly it
is not a necessary consequence of inbreeding, witness von Guaita's long
series of inbred albinos." (von Guaita (17 p. 319) inbred for twenty-eight
generations.)