138 On the Inheritance of Colour in Pigeons 



(3) Silver. In this type the hUie of the Rock Dove is replaced by 

 a light silver, or, more strictly speaking, cream colour, whilst the wing 

 and tail bars are dun. The head, neck, flight feathers, and tail are 

 much lighter and browner than those of the blue, but are considerably 

 darker than the plumage of the wing coverts, back, breast, and under 

 parts. It is extremely difficult to determine with certainty whether 

 the rump is a very light shade of silver or white, but after examining 

 a large number I did not feel convinced that I had found a really 

 white-rumped bird. In the figures given for the experiments on rump 

 character, therefore, these birds are omitted. Silvers are recessive to 

 both types of blues described above, and breed true when mated 

 together. The silver $ produced by breeding together the two 

 Lincolnshire Rock Doves formed the starting point of the experiments 

 described in Series C. 



TABLE I. 



Experiments icith Lincolnshire Bock Doves. 



Offspring 



^ ■ 



Origin Also Origin Also Blue Typical 



Exp. from used in from used in no Columba 



No. Female Exp. Exp. Male Exp. Exp. white livia Silver 



47 Typical C. livia — — Typical C. livia _ — 2 5 1 



(no number) (no number) 



48 Silver 43 47 5.5,56,57, Typical C. «;!)ia 44 47 50,-52 4 6 — 



58, 68 



49 Blue, no wb. 27 48 — Blue, no wh. 39 48 — 8 — 2 



Details of the matings of Lincolnshire Rock Doves. 

 Series A. (v. Table I.) 



Exp. 47. Typical C. livia ? x Typical C. livia J". 



These two birds, when mated together, produced eight offspring, of 

 which five were typical C. livia, two were blue with no white feathers, the 

 rump being a lighter shade of blue, and one was silver with dun wing 

 and tail bars, the rump being apparently a very light silver. Now 

 since subsequent experiments show that blue is dominant to silver and 

 white ramp dominant to blue rump, we may conclude that ha<l this 

 experiment been prolonged we should have had White-rumped blues, 

 Blue-rumped blues and Silvers in the proportion of 9:3:4. The 

 observed figures were .5:2:1. 



