ale
ass; so that the mule resembles the ass more closely than does the
hinny.[151] The {68} male pheasant, judging from Mr. Hewitt's
descriptions,[152] and from the hybrids which I have seen,
preponderates over the domestic fowl; but the latter, as far as colour
is concerned, has considerable power of transmission, for hybrids
raised from five differently coloured hens differed greatly in plumage.
I formerly examined some curious hybrids in the Zoological Gardens,
between the Penguin variety of the common duck and the Egyptian goose
(_Tadorna Aegyptiaca_); and although I will not assert that the
domesticated variety preponderated over the natural species, yet it had
strongly impressed its unnatural upright figure on these hybrids.

I am aware that such cases as the foregoing have been ascribed by
various authors, not to one species, race, or individual being
prepotent over the other in impressing it character on its crossed
offspring, but to such rules as that the father influences the external
characters and the mother the internal or vital organs. But the great
diversity of the rules given by various authors almost proves their
falseness. Dr. Prosper Lucas has fully discussed this point, and has
shown[153] that none of the rules (and I could add others to those
quoted by him) apply to all animals. Similar rules have been enounced
for plants, and have been proved by Gaertner[154] to be all erroneous.
If we confine our view to the domesticated races of a single species,
or perhaps even to the species of the same genus, some such rules may
hold good; for instance, it seems that in reciprocally crossing various
breeds of fowls the male generally gives colour;[155] but conspicuous
exceptions have passed under my own eyes. In sheep it seems that the
ram usually gives its peculiar horns and fleece to its crossed
offspring, and the bull the presence or absence of horns.

In the following chapter on Crossing I shall have occasion to show that
certain characters are rarely or never blended by crossing, but are
{69} transmitted in an unmodified state from either parent-form; I
refer to this fact here because it is sometimes accompanied on the one
side by prepotency, which thus acquires the false appearance of unusual
strength. In the same chapter I shall show that the rate at which a
species