1. The stability with which dairy cattle develop in body size up to 2 years of age was studied in 60 pairs of uniformly treated identical twins, i.e. an assessment was made of the influence of season, genotype, mean size of twin pair, age and degree of maturity on the level of within-pair variability.

2. The frequency distributions of size differences shown by one-egg twins were in many cases decidedly leptokurtic.

3. The similarity in size of the identical twins studied was only slightly, if at all, influenced by season. Within-pair variability under free outdoor grazing was certainly not any greater than under semi-controlled conditions indoors.

4. The stability with which cattle grew appeared to depend on their genotype. Identical twins of the Shorthorn breed were somewhat more alike in size than were the twins of other breed-types; crossbreds were, on average, 50 % less stable than purebreds in average size () ; although crossbreds grew with somewhat greater stability ().

5. Whatever their mean size, all pairs of identical twins of the same breed appeared to grow postnatally with more or less equal stability (). Small, slow growing pairs showed a greater disparity in average size ().

6. Stability of development continually changed with age but not violently. Each body measurement appeared to have its own characteristic age trend. It is false to believe that variation automatically increases with increasing age. As they grew older, identical twins tended to become less alike in their later maturing body measurements whereas their early maturing body measurements tended to decline in variability. There was an overall trend with degree of maturity; variability steadily increased to a maximum and subsequently declined.

7. It is suggested that environmentally induced instability of development may remain at a minimum level so long as growth curves are not seriously distorted from their exponential path to maturity.

Results of two-way selection for multiple births are reported, in a flock of Australian Merinos.

Base ewes, selected for having multiple or single births at each of two lambings at 5 and 6 years of age have shown a good repeatability, the T group (multiple-bearers) having averaged 31 more lambs per 100 ewes mated than the O group (single-bearers) for 6 subsequent lambings.

Unselected daughters of the base ewes, now ranging in age from 2 to 6 years, have also shown a difference in lamb drop, those in the T group averaging 21 more per 100 ewes mated. The difference in lamb drop has increased with the age of the daughter ewes, reaching 31 lambs per 100 ewes mated at 6 years of age.

A small group of Merino ewes from a property where selection for multiple births is practised has produced 1·60 lambs per ewe mated at 2 and 3 years of age.

It is suggested that earlier low estimates of heritability for the incidence of multiple births have led to unwarranted pessimism, and that in some circumstances selection for multiple births may be successful.

Animal Production, Vol. 4, Part 1, p. 132

The figures in Table 1 for Head weight, Flare weight and Fillet weight should be divided by. 10.