NOTE ON THE INHERITANCE OF HORNS AND FACE COLOUR IN SHEER BY T. B. WOOD, M.A., Secretary Cambridge University Department of Agriculture. THE following short note gives the preliminary results of an experiment which I have commenced on a small scale on my father's farm at Field Dalling, near Holt, in Norfolk. The object of the experiment is to follow out the inheritance of various characters in sheep. In the autumn of 1903 my father placed at my disposal 30 of his Suffolk ewes. Suffolk sheep of both sexes are characterised by black faces and the absence of horns. I deter- mined to cross them with a Dorset ram, Dorsets having in both sexes white faces and large horns. For the present, characters other than horns and face-colour are neglected. From the 30 Suffolk ewes mated in the autumn of 1903 with a Dorset ram 43 lambs were born in the spring of 1904. Of these 25 were males and, unfortunately for the continuance of the ex- periment, only 16 females. All the latter were kept for breeding. Two rams were kept, the remaining 23 males being castrated and fattened during the winter of 1904-5. In the autumn of 1904 the 16 cross-bred ewe lambs were mated with one of their half-brothers. Both the ram and the ewes were rather young to breed from, and the crop of lambs was small. Six of the ewes were barren, one aborted, one gave birth to two dead lambs, one produced a lamb which died immediately after birth. The remaining seven produced eight lambs, which were all reared. The parents and both generations of offspring are illustrated in the accompanying plate. They are described below, so far as they vary in horns and in colour of face and legs. The numbers refer to those on the plate. Parents. 1. Dorset Ram. Horns, white face and legs. 2. Suffolk Ewe. No horns, black face and legs. 3. Dorset Ewe. Horns, white face and legs. First generation. Dorset Ram x Suffolk Ewes. 5. Ram. Horns, speckled face and legs. The second ram was JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. Vol. I. Part 3. PLATE IV.

I. Dorset Ram. 2. Suffolk Ewe. 3. Dorset Ewe. Parental Types.

4. Ewe. 5. Ram. 6. Ewe. First Generation.

7. Ram. 8. Ewe. 9. Ram. Second Generation.

10. Ram. 11. Ram. 12. Ewe. Second Generation. T. B. WOOD 365 drowned when 3 months old. At this age both the rams had large horns of about the same size, and far larger than those that had been castrated. 4 & 6. Ewes. No horns, speckled face and legs. Second generation. First cross ram first cross ewes. 10. Ram. Horns, white face and legs. There were two lambs of this type. 9. Ram. No horns, white face and legs. 7. Ram. Small horns, face white, with black rings round eyes; legs white, slightly speckled with black. There were two lambs, twins, of this type. 11. Ram. Small horns, speckled face and legs. 8. Ewe. No horns, speckled face and legs. 12. Ewe. Horns, face black, but with what appears to be rather wool than white hair on cheeks and forehead. The Dorset ram used in 1904 was bought as pure bred from a Dorset breeder. The Suffolk ewes were not registered animals, but I have known the strain for some years, and have never seen either a horn produced or any white hair on face or legs. They may there- fore be taken as pure in these characters. It will be seen from the plate that the first generation hybrids have speckled faces and legs, and that in the second generation white faces, black faces, and speckled faces are produced: also that the first genera- tion hybrid ewes have no horns, whilst the rams grow large horns. If, however, the rams are castrated the growth of their horns ceases. This accounts for the smallness of the horns in numbers 7 and 11 in the plate. In the second generation both horned and hornless animals of both sexes were produced. A number of Dorset ewes were mated with a Suffolk ram at the University Farm in the autumn of 1904 in order to breed a number of cross-bred sheep reciprocal to the crosses bred at Dalling. The face- colour is again the same and the males are horned, the females hornless. It would appear, therefore, that when black and white faced sheep are crossed the hybrids have speckled faces, and that these hybrids do not breed true inter se, but split into white faces, black faces, and speckled faces. As regards horns, it appears that when Dorset sheep having horns in both sexes are crossed with hornless Suffolk sheep, the male offspring have horns, the females do not; or in other words, horns are dominant in males, recessive in females. 24—5