BREEDING AND INBREEDING FOR COLOR IN SO.AIE DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 101 



(9 in table) being practically pure white. Tliese lairds are shown in i)ls. 14 and 

 17. Another striking color variant of another t.ype, from the following summer, 

 when the dam A\as mated to a normal son, is shown in pi. 18. Two normally 

 colored young, the fifth and seventh of the series of 1908, may be seen in pi. 18. 



The first, ninth, and tenth of these young gave still other evidences of physical 

 degeneracy. A mating of the first young of the series, a female gray pouter (1), 

 with a male black pouter produced but a single pair of eggs (no record of hatching) ; 

 three abortive attempts at egg-laying show, howev(>r, that this female, from the 

 very first egg of the season, was a degenerate; the red bars of her adult plumage 

 indicate the same." (G 16) 



Two of the sisters of this bird, from very late in the season, were also degenerates. 

 Concerning this pair the following statement is found: 



"Degenerates 9 8 and ? 0: Female 8 was hatched October 10, 1908. She is dark gray, 

 having bars red with hjnc]; Ijonler. A neat l)ir(l Init a degenerate as shown by color, and l)y 

 her failure to ])r(i(liicc ;in ogg .March (i, 11M)'.», wlien mated with a .strong male black jioutcr. 



"Female U hatched October 11, I'-MS^ivhite! Her feathers were slow and Aery irregular 

 in growth; she was never able to fly, but lived until January 27, 1909. She was kept 

 in the house and well cared for, and there was no cause for death but weakness. The legs 

 of this bird sprawled, so that walking was difficult; her motions were \'ery shaky, the head 

 shaking like a fantail; the primaries hung loosely apart." (Cr 16, R 16) 



These birds are shown in pi. 17. 



S(>\('i'al othei' pouteis of the same series (hatched in 1908) were mated brother- 

 to-sister duiing the following year. The records of 3 such pairs is given in table 80. 

 In 1909, ])air 1 threw , from the last clutch of record, a bird with deficient pigmen- 

 tation and "diverging legs." Two normal birds had preceded it. Only a single 

 clutch of eggs was laid (March) during the following year. The bird from the first 

 egg here had \^'hite wing-bars and was too lightly pigmented; that from the 

 second egg had black bars with traces of red. Pairs 2 and 3 of these brother-to- 

 sister matings each threw a solid red or red-orange bird as their final effort in the 

 late season; in pair 3, which bred latest (until September), both eggs of the last 

 clutch showed red, though one of these had red only in the region of the normally 

 white bars (see pi. 14). An earlier clutch produced one bird of normal color, and 

 one with nearly all feathers "white" with broad tips of "brown-orange." This 

 bird also had "diverging legs." Both young from this clutch are shown in \)\. 17. 

 The abnormally colored young from the last eggs of pair 2 are shown in pi. 18. 

 Besides the red-colored young mentioned above, another of the rock-dove type 

 was produced from the first egg. The t«o strongly abnormal young of these t^vo 

 pairs were both from the second egg of the clutch. 



The black Briinn pouters listed in table 81 show abnormal "gray" birds (with 

 the white bars of the black parents replaced by the black bars) from both of the 

 latest laid eggs. The 4 birds from the second year of this mating all seem to have 

 had their white bars more or less replaced by red or black. 



'^ "These birds mated about February 1, 1909, and were given a separate cote. They copulated, built a nest, and, 

 alfchoUKh laving no egg, hfg:iii tn sit on eniptv nest earlv in March. Thev were allowed to continue sitting, which 



thevdillfnr.-ll.oul L'w.'i'ks, l/i(cl-, iifl.T !,■;, viIIlM li.' I,r-l'r..|-Ml...nl ;, w.M.k thrv ivlunir.l l,,i( :,si|- („ l.c-lll :i srroll.l 

 turn. Tllisllln.>:llsnn..,-U U-l. I.n.l :..m1 I lir <lt I in- r<,Ml ,„u,mI fnlnllh iilioul :, wrk. A ll,,nl ;,1I,.„,|.I ;v:,s IU.'hI,. in 



.\pnl, hut with. .Ill Mil rgL?. .\holll .M:iv 1 mill :; ihry l.riJMIl In I. mill Ihr suiH' lir.-^l 111 till' -^alilr pi;, rr. :ili,l at Irligtii, 

 on May 9, the female laid her hr.st egg! As this female was hatched May 2, 191)8, she should have succeeded in pro- 

 ducing an egg early in the winter. To have failed several times, up to May 9, shows that she is a degenerate. " (G 16 



