114 ORTHOGENETIC EVOLUTION IN PIGEONS. 



I find that all white doves are born nearly naked, are rather delicate, and inclined 

 to be of the female sex. Some white hybrids show a shade of cream; these have a 

 little more down. 



Blue. — This is held to be the "most important" color. While white, brown, red, 

 and yellow are uniform throughout, or should be, this condition is never met in the 

 blue color. "A one-colored blue dove, in the strict sense of the word, does not exist." 

 The blue color, it is noted, conditions certain shades and markings, and never 

 appears without them. Hence the rule: "If shades arise in other colors, these trend 

 towards the conditions characteristic of the blue pattern, and are therefore to be 

 discarded." 



Black. — It is stated (page 30) that the black wing-bars often show a tendency to 

 become "reddish fox-color" — and that this is the first step in the transition to 

 "white" bars. The origin of white bars gives the key to variations in the bars. 



In juvenile feathers those bars which are destined to be white in the adult, or 

 partially white, "usually appear in the transitional color of red or yellow," and 

 become white or lighter after the molt. 



It is noted as a "curious fact, that white never at first replaces the whole of the 

 black. It always begins near the middle of the black spot, so that the anterior 

 half appears reddish, while the posterior part remains black." This is the law 

 which governs the transformation and differentiation of the black bar. In this way 

 we take the first step and get bars of double-color. 



"According to the law that when white once appears in one region, it will extend 

 to others, we may expect that white in the bars will be followed by white in corre- 

 lated parts; e.g., the tail-bar will begin to be lighter, and will go through the same 

 changes as the wing-bar as illustrated in the Blondinettes and Satinettes" (pages 

 303, 304). 



The "breast, neck, and primaries" tend also, it is said, to become paler. The 

 metallic luster of the neck suffers accordingly. When the bars become white, "a 

 semilunate white spot appears on the breast," the horns of which run up to near 

 the middle of the sides of the neck. The law thus leads to the so-called "Staar- 

 halstaube." The breast-spot becomes whiter with every molt — pure white in very 

 old birds (page 49). The starling, with its white breast-crescent, furnishes the 

 starting-point for still further development (page 304). 



As the "black bar" may be repeated in all the coverts of the wing, so the white 

 bars may be extended to the whole wing. The white appears in the black spots of 

 the coverts just as in the bars themselves, beginning near the middle of the spot 

 and spreading over the front half, leaving in the posterior half the transitional red 

 followed behind by a black border, which in turn is followed by the terminal blue 

 or gray. "In this way arises a wonderfully beautiful marking, which, when com- 

 plete, is not excelled by any other" (page 304). This marking arises in many 

 varieties, as in the Luchstaube (Polish Luchstaube, page 61; a plate precedes), in 

 the modenese (or Modena dove, page 147; a plate precedes), in the pouters, etc. 

 All these varieties arise under the "law of the distribution of white" (page 305). 



Priitz states his theory thus: "Alle Zeichnungen entsprechen den bei der blauen 

 Farbe gezeichneten Federtheilen oder Federgruppen." In translation: All color- 

 marks correspond to the colored parts of feathers or groups of feathers which are 

 distinguishable in the typical blue pigeon. The essence of the theory is that "all 



