CHAPTER 6 



Blood Cells of Other Avian Species 



DESCRIPTION OF CELLS 



Although this study has been concerned pri- 

 marily with the blood of the chicken, the authors 

 have not been unmindful of the requirement, im- 

 plicit in the title of this volume, that attention be 

 given to the blood of other species of birds. 



Specimens have been collected from other do- 

 mestic birds and from wild birds. But cells 

 from such specimens are illustrated and de- 

 scribed only if they differ appreciably from cells 

 found in cliicken blood. There seemed to be no 

 reason why a cell from another species should be 

 illustrated and described if its counterpart in 



chicken blood could be readily located in the 

 Atlas. 



Table 11 lists the birds from which specimens 

 were taken. The study included the circulating 

 blood of all these species and the bone marrow 

 of many of them. 



After the blood cells of the chicken, with all 

 their variations, have been thoroughly studied, 

 no difficulty should be experienced in identifying 

 the various blood-cell types in other birds, be- 

 cause the same cell type is closely similar in ap- 

 pearance in most avian species. The only pos- 

 sible points of confusion have been illustrated in 

 figures 400-410, and are to be found in tlie 



1 Names in parentheeee are from the fifth edition (1957) of "Check-List of North American Birds," by a committee of the American Ornithologists' Union; 

 others are from the fourth edition (1931). 



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