Bateson writes to Cecil asking for his experience of cross-breeding poultry with other species of birds. Bateson writes that he aims to conduct experiments to determine whether certain distinguishing features of breeds can be blended in crossing, and what differences there are in crossing pure-bred and inbred breeds. He notes that he has been experimenting with White Leghorn chickens, but that he has had difficulty in finding breeds of a strictly recorded pedigree, specifically red combed breeds or Malay chickens.