250 Colour and Patterti-Transference in Pheai<ants 



The pattern of the Silver $ 3rd laterals was found on the centrals 

 of the iiiiTnature plumage of hei- F^ male offspring aged ten months, 

 also on her Fi female offspring's adult centrals, and on the centrals of 

 her descendant F.2 inter se ,/ " B." 



An instance of double colour-transference in this area was noted : 

 the black colour of the laterals of a male parent (Swinhoe J'), was found 

 transferred to the centrals of a male descendant F^ Si. x Sw. x Sw. 

 (Series l"-" in pedigree, fertile hybrids), while the white of the central 

 rectrices of the male Swinhoe was transferred to one lateral on the 

 same bird. 



A case of the abnormal in a pure specieswas observed, a Ph. furtnosaniis 

 female, who was seen to combine abnormality of behaviour, treading 

 the other females and uttering the male challenge, with an assumption 

 of male plumage and pendulous wattles. 



Among the fertile hybrids, the first of the three series of the Silver 

 Swinhoe crosses 1, 1" and l"" in pedigree engages attention, for in 

 Series 1 two plumage mutations arose, one in the male, the other in the 

 female line, and that the two, though dissimilar in colour and pattern, 

 were intimately connected, is attested by the coloration of the 

 immature plumage in both sexes, the male and female mutation showing 

 similar differences at that stage from the more normal individuals of 

 the same cross and generation. The chief mutation consisted in the 

 males of a change in the areas of throat, breast, flank and thigh tuft 

 from the unpatterned condition found in the males of both parent 

 species to a patterned condition not present in either in the same areas, 

 the origin of which in the first three areas can be traced to the marginal 

 and central interscapulars of Gen. swinhoei the male parent of i^j " BA," 

 and in the fourth area to the female Swinhoe breast and flank patterns. 

 The colour mutation was the occurrence of much white mingled with 

 the black common to both male parent species in these four areas, 

 whilst in the first three areas there was also a change of form to an 

 extremely pointed type of feather and a degeneration in the dimension 

 of the feathers; these three mutations occur in F^ " BA," F„ " BBA," 

 F, " BBBA " and F, " BBS A " inter se. The first and simplest form of 

 the new colour and pattern is a white rachis, in other examples the 

 white invades both vanes, forming a stripe down the feather, in some 

 widening at the tip, in others widening at the base, some feathers, more 

 particularly in the throat area, have the outer ends altogether white, 

 like the Swinhoe central interscaj)ular ; other variations of the mutation 

 occur, one recalling the breast pattern of the female of the male parent 



