OCR Text |
Show 1 9 0 3 .] JAPANESE LONG-TAILED FOWLS. 2 4 9 I think it is tolerably certain that these experiments explain the method adopted by the Japanese in the production of tail-feathers of extreme length, and that much that has hitherto been mysterious and inexplicable in the matter is now explained. The statement that the feathers do not moult or moult only once in three years, or that the Japanese have a secret method of preventing the moult, is explained if we assume that the Japanese fancier strokes the feather as Mr. Sparks stated, and that he either deliberately pulls a feather out when it shows signs of diminishing growth, or that the feather is automatically pulled out in the process when its growth diminishes ; because, as I have shown, the attachment of the feather is very feeble when the growth is ceasing. As a rule, when a feather is pulled out its successor immediately sprouts again, and its growth is afterwards continued regardless of the moulting-season. The results of my experiments in fact are in complete agreement with the statement of the matter furnished by Mr. Sparks. The long-tailed cock in its perfection, therefore, is neither a sport nor a breed, but a product of artificial cultivation ; and the excessive growth of the feathers is the result of stimulation applied to the individual. The most important part of the stimulation is not the mere pulling of the feather, but the extraction of it which causes the growth of its successor. On the other hand, the method of treatment is applied not to any breed at random, but to a particular breed which includes several varieties of colour, and apparently two varieties of comb. It can scarcely be supposed that the same treatment applied to another breed would produce results at all comparable, and we therefore may conclude that in this special breed there is a special and extraordinary tendency to growth in the tail-feathers and saddle-hackles. The congenital peculiarity is evidenced in the case of Cock A in my experiment. The question therefore arises, whether this congenital peculiarity has been developed entirely by spontaneous variations and selection, or whether it has been influenced by the excessive growth artificially induced in every generation. It is probable enough that in most cases a cock which showed the most rapid and most prolonged growth was used for breeding, but it is by no means certain that the cocks so used were never subjected to the artificial treatment. The probabilities are rather the other way, that specimens which had been found to respond to the treatment were used for breeding. It is a significant fact that this is the only breed of long-tailed fowls in existence, and that the method of treatment applied to it is so elaborate and so absolutely artificial, requiring daily attention for months and years. If a similar result could have been obtained by selection alone, it is difficult to understand why poultry fanciers in some part of the world have not made the discovery. The results of this investigation are remarkably in agreement with the theory advocated in my book ‘ Sexual Dimorphism in the Animal Kingdom.' In that book I pointed out that wherever |