THE TURTLE-DOVE PATTERN IN OTHER ORDERS OF BIRDS. 139 



The Penciled Hamburghs have the same transverse bars. "In adult cocks there 

 is a general absence of these bars" (page 178). "The markings of the hens is very 

 seldom so correct as in pullets. The pencil-marks are fewer in number in each 

 feather, and in general fade more or less at each molt, especially in the tails and tail 

 coverts" (page 281). 'The young cocks, before molting, are penciled much the 

 same as the pullets." 



All this would seem to indicate that such transverse bars are not solely due to 

 crossing black varieties with white, but that they are rather a type of feather- 

 marking widely distributed among fowls. 



With reference to the origin of the dark and light transverse bars of the American 

 Dominique, Mr. McGrew 64 says (page 8) : 



"The Dominique color is a combination of black and white. It comes as one of the 

 results of crossing black and white fowls. The mottling of the Java and Houdan and the 

 Ancona are other results of the same methods of mating pure black and pure white fowls 

 together." 



In the Barred Plymouth Rock the dark bars are more or less "crescentic" in 

 form, and each feather usually ends with the "dark" bar (page 18). The curve 

 points towards the tip, not towards the base. But in some tail-feathers (of his 

 figures, pi. i) these point backward toward the base of the feather. The broad 

 V-shaped bars are considered "defects" (page 17). The V-shape of bars, with the 

 V pointed toward the base of the feather, is well shown in the male Dorking (Niitz 

 and Ziergefliigel-Rassen, pis. n and xxni); the hen shows a broad V pointed 

 towards the tip. 



Concerning a law of the multiplication of bars, it may be observed that the 

 bars in Geopelia extend to near the middle of the feather, being strongest near the 

 tip and weakest towards the inner limit. In the Plymouth Rock the breeder de- 

 mands distinct bars for the whole length of the feather. 



The bars, then, may be supposed to have begun at the end or near the end of 

 the feather, and to have multiplied towards the inner end of the feather's base. 

 The highest development is with the oldest bar, but it may shift forward so that 

 the second or third bar may be the strongest. 



" T. F. McGrew. American Breeds of Fowls, I, The Plymouth Rock. Bull. 29, Bureau of Animal Industry, 

 U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1901. 



NOTE. The manuscripts used in the preparation of this chapter were found in folders designated as follows: 

 A 14. Em 1, O 4, 0010, 0014, 0018, W 4, W 11, W 13, WW 2, WW 9, Z 7, Z 11. ED. 



