claimed it impossible that all domestic fowls could have been descended from one parent source. Darwin based his conclusions largely on his own experiments, and while, as he himself confesses, the evidence may not be conclusive, it is the best evidence that we have, and we give here the substance of it. The evidence pointed to the Bankivus as the progenitor of all fowls, first, because it mated with the tame fowl and produced offspring, while the other species mentioned never or rarely crossed. Darwin dwells with considerable detail on this fact as an argument in favor of the Bankivus. Sometimes, however, different species of animals will mate together and produce offspring, but the progeny called hybrids are barren or unfertile. The mule is usually cited in illustration of this fact. He is the product of two distinct species of animals, the proof of which is the fact that he is barren. The horse and the ass therefore could not have had a common origin. Darwin, and later others, not only found that the Gallus bankivus freely mates with our domestic fowl, but that the offspring are fertile and breed successfully. These experiments strongly impressed Darwin with the belief that Gallus bankivus is the original progenitor of domestic fowls. 8 POULTRY BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT Experiments along another line pointed in the same direction. Students of heredity know that crossing and intercrossing breeds and varieties cause reversion, or a breeding back to remote ancestors. "Why the likeness of some ancient ancestor through the act of crossing different breeds should suddenly reappear in the offspring after having apparently disappeared from the face of the earth centuries ago is one of the enigmas of breeding. Following up the clue of reversion, Darwin found what he claimed to be strong evidence pointing to the Gallus bankiva as the original ancestor of our fowls. He says that Game, Malay, Cochin, Bantam and Silkies, when crossed, revert to the Bankiva. In crossing the Black Spanish and White Silkie, he found that the offspring were all black, except one cock which resembled Gallus bankiva so strongly that he said : ' * It was a marvelous sight to compare this bird with Gallus bankiva and then with its father." He declared further that the color of the golden and silver Pencilled Hamburgs pointed to their ancient progenitors. "This may be in part explained by direct reversion to the parent form, the Bankiva hen, for this bird has all its upper plumage finely mottled. ' ' Remarkable, is it not, that after two or three thousand years of breeding away from the wild fowl, it is possible in crossing to trace in the color of plumage and shape and carriage of the offspring the descent of the wild fowl to our present modern breeds. And yet to scientists such as Darwin, mute testimony of this nature may be more conclusive than the written word. Darwin's findings in regard to the common origin of the domestic fowl may be summarized as follows: 1. The domestic fowls mate freely with G. bankivck 2. They mate very rarely with any othe...