INHERITANCE OF BLUE COLOR, SPANGLING, AND BARRING. 81 



This analysis indicates that we should occasionally see a spangled male, 

 and this expectation is realized. Thus No. 1250 c? is an Fj out of White 

 Leghorn A and the Rose-Combed Black Minorca No. 9. He is white with 

 black spots covering about 10 per cent of the plumage, and No. 4222 c? 

 of similar origin has much black on his chiefly white plumage. When they 

 are mated to spangled hens of similar origin with themselves (pen 775), 

 whites, blacks, and spotted, spangled, and blues occur in the proportions 

 of 1, 17, and 12, respectively. Here again there is a deficiency of whites in 

 the birds as described, a deficiency again probably due to immaturity. 



Of the mottled condition all degrees are found, from white splashed 

 with black to black with white spots ; also, blue is very common in the off- 

 spring of two mottled birds. The relation of these patterns is very complex 

 and much time would be required for their complete analysis, but it seems 

 certain that there is a spangling or mottling factor, but that, as in canaries, 

 guinea-pigs, and rats, the precise pattern is not inherited. There are, to 

 be sure, in poultry, so called races of spangled birds with well-defined pat- 

 terns, such as the spangled PoUsh, spangled Hamburghs, and so forth, but 

 it is the experience of breeders that they do not reproduce their patterns 

 closely. The prize-winning birds those which conform to the breeder's 

 ideals are only a small proportion of each family of offspring. For instance, 

 the Ancona type of plumage, which is black, each feather tipped with white, 

 has to be carefully sought for in the progeny of each Ancona pen. The same 

 is true of the Silver Spangled and Golden Spangled Hamburgs. There is 

 little true spangling in the first plumage; the darker chicks prove the best; 

 that is, there is the same tendency to grow whiter with age that I have 

 noted above. And, finally, only a few birds in any flock are even fairly 

 good show birds. 



C. BARRING. 



The presence of bands of black running at intervals across the other- 

 wise white feather is a condition found in many types of poultry as well 

 as various wild birds. It has become a fixed character in the Barred Ply- 

 mouth Rock, which derived it in turn from the barred Dominique, whose 

 barring was probably derived from the Cuckoo birds of England. Barring 

 is also said to result from some crosses between white and black birds. 

 In my breedings barred birds have arisen several times: 

 (1) White Cochin x Tosa. This case was referred to in my earher 

 report.* In the first generation of hybrids all males were barred. In the 

 second hybrid generation I got 15 chicks that were white or nearly so, 25 

 with the Game color, and 16 barred. Remembering that only the males 

 are barred and that the young heterozygous females are classed with 

 Games, it appears that the barring is a heterozygous condition, occurring 

 actually or potentially in about 50 per cent of the second hybrid generation 



* 1906, page 49, figs. 35, 37, 37a. 



