Two Queer Questions.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20278, 12 April 1934, Page 8

Two Queer Questions.

Dear Sir,——Would you pleue answer the following two questions through your correspondence in the “Star"? (1) Is it true that all fresh-water eels are born in the same spot? (2| “'here does the black sheep come from?-——l am. etc.. BURNETT‘S FACE. These questions were submitted to Professor E. Percival, professor of biology It Canterbury College, who said‘thot it was believed that all the freshwater eels of Eur Ope and northern end eastern America were born near the bed of the Atlantic. a little north and east of the Bahema Islands. It was also believed, though not proved, that New Zealand. and possibly Australian, fresh-water eels were born in the Tasman Sea. It was known that their breeding grounds were always in the ocean. Blackness and whiteness in sheep end other animals. such as rabbits and so on, were two opposing characters. When n black bred with a. white the offspring WIS white. If two of the hybrids. male end female. bred together the result would .be in the proportion of three whites to one black—— that was, the black would breed through, the white would breed through, and there would be two hybrids. Blackness in animals, which might be regarded as an usual, was due to a sudden change in the inherited character of the org-aim.