A CASE OF ABNORMAL PLUMAGE. 



R. M. STRONG. 



The purpose of this paper is to describe a case of abnormal 

 plumage. The material was obtained from a hybrid pigeon be- 

 longing to Professor C. O. Whitman, which was reared at Woods 

 Holl, Mass., in the summer of 1902. The male parent of the 

 bird was a ring dove (Turtur risorius] and the female parent was 

 a hybrid between a male little red ring dove of China (T. humilis] 

 and a common ring dove (T. risorius]. 



The abnormalities under consideration occurred 

 in the plumage succeeding the natal down, the 

 so-called Juvenal plumage of D wight (:oo), and 

 they were of three distinct types, belonging re- 

 spectively to the remiges, the rectrices and the 

 body coverts. 



1 . The Remiges. The remiges all had a 

 transverse band of slightly paler color across the 

 proximal portion of the distal half of the vane 

 (see Fig. i). The shaft, barbs and barbules 

 were all more sparsely pigmented where this 

 band occurred, and some of the barbules were 

 represented only by stubs. This condition of the 

 barbules is particularly noticeable at the proxi- 

 mal ends of the barbs whose insertions on the 

 shaft occur in this region, and it will be consid- 

 ered in the description of abnormalities in the 



rectrices. The vane was also slightly narrower Dorsal 



view of secondary 

 at this point. The position and character of this f rom left wing of 



band were uniform in all of the remiges, though hybrid pigeon hav- 



there were very slight variations in its' paleness. ing abnormal P lum - 



age V" I 



2. The Rectrices. - - The rectrices were also 



crossed by a transverse band in a position similar to that noticed 

 in the remiges, but the region is much more abnormal. The loss 

 in pigmentation is greater than was the case in the remiges, and 



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