INHERITANCE

INHERITANCE Mendel in his writings suggests that if we paired a large and a small bird together in the hope of getting a medium size bird, we would get some large birds and some small birds, but never medium birds, and this basic premise is true. However, with canaries we are dealing with a more complex situation than Mendel’s experiments with Pea plants. For instance, if we were to pair two large canaries together – one with a large body and a short tail, and the other with a small body with a long tail. Both birds could be the same physical length. Resulting from this you could expect some very large birds with large bodies and long tails; but also some that would have the small body and short tail. The remainder would be similar to the mother or farther. It is still the same basic inheritance rule, but applied to different parts of the bird’s make-up. Just considering the body; all the babies would have either a small body or a large body – just never a medium body. This is why when pairing birds you look for a bird that is strong in the area that the partner may be lacking.