94 Colour and Other Characters in Pigeons 



Series C and D. Black, blue, and white. 



The third series of experiments was concerned with the inheritance 

 of colour only. In it two original pairings were made, G and D, a 

 Black Fantail hen by White Fantail cock and the reciprocal cross 

 white hen by black cock. The Black Fantails used were guaranteed of 

 pure stock by the breeder who supplied them, all their feathers were 

 full black except the webs of the tail feathers and primaries, which 

 were very finely mottled with whitish, especially at the base, giving 

 the web a greyish appearance. After a number of young had been 

 obtained from these birds paired with White Fantails, the black cock 

 and hen were paired together and produced two young, one of which 

 was full black with practically no grey on the webs of the quill-feathers, 

 the other black with as much grey as the parents, and four white 

 feathers, two primaries in the left wing and two covert feathers in the 

 right. It is possible therefore that one or both the original black 

 parents was not pure bred. Control experiments were made with 

 pedigree birds as described below, 



? a 



White Fantail x Black Fantail 



19 black and white (all with much white) 

 of which 



ill I II 



Fi <? X f'l ? X Fid FiS X i White Fii x Fi ? 



I I I Fantail 



white 2 white 2 whit 



3 white 1 white 4 black 4 blue 7 white 2 white 2 white 



and and and and and 



black blue white white black 



r- 



1 black and 3 white and 1 blue and 5 white 

 white black white 



Fig. 4. (Sferies D.) 



The results of pairing these Black Fantails with Whites were as 

 follows. In Series C (black $ x white (/, p. 93) 13 young were produced, 

 all pied black and white, but of these 10 had a preponderance of white, 

 and three of black. The birds varied considerably, but those with 

 excess of white may be described as white fantails, generally with most 

 of the tail feathers black with grey along the shafts, and black patches 

 of varying size and distribution on the body and wing coverts. The 

 three with excess of black were black birds, with scattered white 



