Mendelian Expectations

Abstract

MR. LEWIS BONHOTE has confirmed Mr. R. Staples Browne's statement that the web-foot in pigeons is a simple Mendelian recessive, but he finds that when webbed birds from two different strains are crossed an irregular result is obtained, viz. four normal and one webbed. Moreover, mating the first crosses yielded results in almost every case contrary to Mendelian expectations, normals throwing webs and webs throwing normals (NATURE, December 1, p. 160). Similar results have been obtained with West Highland terriers, in which white is apparently recessive to yellow. The offspring of pure-bred white terriers belonging to the same strain are white, but the offspring of pure-bred white terriers from different strains are sometimes yellow. Further, a hybrid (yellow) which produced more than 50 per cent. of white pups to a white dog of her own (Inverness) strain produced only yellow pups to a white dog of a different (Poltalloch) strain.