14 INHERITANCE IN CANARIES. 



alcohol or ether, and is classified as a lipochrome (zoofulvin). The 

 "green" barbs from which the lipochrome has been extracted are 

 dark-brown or black. This dark pigment is much more resistant to 

 reagents and is a melanin having its locus in minute granules. It was 

 the purpose of the hybridization experiments to learn how these two 

 kinds of pigments are inherited. 



In addition to green and yellow canaries there is a color variety 

 known as "cinnamon." A microscopic examination of the barb shows 

 that the quantity of pigment in the quill feathers of the cinnamon is 

 much less than in the "green" — and is probably of a different quality, 

 being allied to the buff of pigeons and poultry. A fourth color type 

 is the "lizard." This is a special pattern rather than color, to which 

 further reference is made below. 



A word about nomenclature is necessary, and in this I follow mainly 

 Blakston. There are two grades of concentration of all colors — the 

 dense, bright shade or "jonque" color, and the dilute, dull tint or 

 "mealy" color. A "self" yellow, green, or cinnamon is of approxi- 

 mately one color all over — though with varying shades and tints. A 

 yellow mixed with black over a varying extent of the body is called 

 mottled or pied. "Heavily variegated" birds have breast, back, 

 wings, and tail dark; "lightly variegated" birds have only back, 

 wings, and tail dark; "marked" birds have wings and tail dark and 

 no melanic pigment on the body excepting eye-stripes; "ticked" 

 birds are all yellow, except for small patches of dark color. 



RESULTS. 



1. On Inheritance of Green and Yellow Plumage-Color. 



Breeders of canaries for color have formulated certain directions 



to be followed in the work. Those of Russ (1906, 125-127), one of the 



best-known authors on cage-birds, are, on account of their definiteness, 



worthy of translation here. 



Experienced breeders have demonstrated that in color-breeding the choice of the 

 male is determinative, while the female must be self-colored. Thus, e.g., to produce 

 crested offspring with a high yellow color one selects a male of this color, but a green, 

 non-crested female. The more purely thoroughbred the birds are, i. e., the greater the 

 number of generations they have been held pure, the purer their progeny. Let a 

 yellow pair, no matter of what origin, from green or gray, produce young among which 

 is a yellow male; let this breed next year, in a separate cage, with a yellow female; 

 young are produced among which is a yellow male. If such a male be mated with a 

 female likewise bred true for two generations, their progeny will never produce any- 

 thing but yellow offspring. If one collects three or four pairs of this sort and lets 

 them fly free in the room there need be no fear that any discolored birds will be 

 produced. . . . The same liolds true for all self-colored varieties ; for the bright- 

 yellows, straw-yellows, whites, greens, grays, and isabella-colored, but not for mottled 

 birds. The latter are far more subject to accidental variation, and one may be happy 



