A HEN WHICH CHANGED COLOR’ 
A Note on the Hereditary Behavior of a Normal Blue Andalusian Hen Whose 
Feathers Changed to Snowy White 
WiiiiaAm A. LIPPINCOTT 
Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan, Kansas 
ASTLE and Phillips’ (1911) studies 
on ovarian transplantation in 
guinea-pigs have been most useful 
as classroom illustrations of the sepa- 
rateness of the soma and germ-plasm. 
They have conveyed to the elementary 
student as no amount of explanation 
might, just what the underlying prin- 
ciple of Weismanns’ (1893) great con- 
cept was. These results are too famil- 
iar to biologists to need review. 
In connection with a study of the in- 
heritance of blue in poultry, the writer 
has observed a marked somatic change 
in a blue Andalusian hen, which, as was 
to be expected, did not in any way 
change the gametes she produced. Be- 
cause the change was a rather striking 
one and might serve as an example of 
the independence of the body-plasm 
and germ-plasm from another point of 
view, it has seemed worth while to give 
a detailed account of the case. 
What appeared to be a normal blue 
Andalusian hen was turned over to the 
writer in the early spring of 1917 by 
Professor J. G. Halpin of the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin. She came from the 
flock of the University Poultry Depart- 
ment and was then almost two years 
old. This hen was from a pedigreed 
family, among the members of which 
nothing unusual had been noted. She 
carried the University legband number 
C2032, and was, among others, used in 
breeding work carried on at the Univer- 
sity during that spring. 
In August 1917 she was taken to 
Kansas State Agricultural College at 
Manhattan where she has since been 
kept on the farm of the Department of 
Poultry Husbandry. 
In October 1917 it was observed that 
white feathers were appearing on her 
neck and a little later that her develop- 
ing primaries also were white. It was 
noted that new feathers were coming in 
in other regions of the body which were 
the normal blue, and by December ist 
it was apparent that she had completed 
her molt for that season. 
Her appearance on December 20, 
1917, isshown in Fig.1. There was no 
further noticeable change until the fol- 
lowing July when it was observed that 
she was again in full molt, her old 
feathers both blue and white being re- 
placed only by white. Photographs 
taken August 7, 1918, may be seen in 
-Figs. 2, 3 and 4, which show her during 
the progress of her molt. Six weeks 
later she was snowy white throughout 
(Fig. 7). She has since never displayed 
a blue feather and is now (October 
1920) in apparent good health and lay- 
ing occasionally. 
CAUSES OF COLOR CHANGES 
Supposing that similar color changes 
among domestic birds were not un- 
common, a search of the literature was 
made. While it has not been exhaus- 
tive, the writer has been surprised not 
to find, in the journals at his disposal, 
accounts of similar changes. The ac- 
count of Finches’ (1908) hen indicates 
that the color change was first due to 
loss of pigment from the feathers after 
growth and not to a failure of the 
pigment-manufacturing mechanism to 
function. The color change came 
after, and not as the accompaniment 
of,a molt. During a subsequent molt 
pigmented feathers were grown which 
later turned white. Whether the pig- 
ment forming mechanism was some- 
what interfered with during this molt, 
or the bird passed through a partial 
molt only, is not clear. 
‘Contribution from the Department of Genetics, Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, 
No. 25 and from the Department of Poultry Husbandry, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, 
No. 16. 
342 
