BKIOKIH.M; \M> INI$KI-:KI>IN<; KOU COI.OH IN SO.MK DOMKSTK PIGEONS. 101 



(9 in table) being practically pure white. These birds are shown in pis. 14 and 

 17. Another striking color variant of another type, from the following summer, 

 when the dam was mated to a normal son, is shown in pi. 18. Two normally 

 colored young, the fifth and seventh of the scries of 1908, may be seen in pi. 18. 



The first, ninth, and tenth of these young gave still oilier evidences of physical 

 degeneracy. A mating of the lirst young of the series, a female gray pouter (1), 

 with a male black pouter produced but a single pair of eggs (no record of hatching : 

 three abortive attempts at egg-laying show, however, that this female, from tin- 

 very first egg of the season, was a degenerate; the red bars of her adult plumage 

 indicate the same. 13 (G 1(5) 



Two of the sisters of this bird, from very late in the season, were also degenerates. 

 Concerning this pair the following statement is found: 



"Degenerates 5 8 and 9 9: Female 8 was hatched October 10, 190S. She is dark gray, 

 living l>;irs red with black border. A neat bird but a degenerate as shown by color, and by 

 her failure to produce an egg March 0, 1909, when mated with a strong male black pouter. 



"Female 9 hatched October 11, 1908 white! Her feathers were slow and very irregular 

 in growth; she was never able to fly, but lived until January 27, 1909. She was kept 

 in the house and well cared for, and there was no cause for death but weakness. The legs 

 of this bird sprawled, so that walking was difficult; her motions were very shaky, the head 

 shaking like a fantail; the primaries hung loosely apart." (G 16, R 10) 



These birds are shown in pi. 17. 



Several other pouters of the same series (hatched in 1908) were mated brother- 

 to-sister during the following year. The records of 3 such pairs is given in table SO. 

 In 1909, pair 1 threw, from the last clutch of record, a bird with deficient pigmen- 

 tation and "diverging legs." Two normal birds had preceded it. Only a single 

 clutch of eggs was laid (March) during the following year. The bird from the first 

 egg here had white wing-bars and was too lightly pigmentcd; that from the 

 second egg had black bars with traces of red. Pairs 2 and 3 of these brother-to- 

 sister matings each threw a solid red or red-orange bird as their final effort in the 

 late season; in pair 3, which bred latest (until September), both eggs of the last 

 clutch showed red, though one of these had red only in the region of the normally 

 white bars (see pi. 14). An earlier clutch produced one bird of normal color, and 

 one with nearly all feathers "white" with broad tips of "brown-orange." This 

 bird also had "diverging legs." Both young from this clutch are shown in pi. 17. 

 The abnormally colored young from the last eggs of pair 2 are shown in pi. IS. 

 Besides the red-colored young mentioned above, another of the rock-dove type- 

 was produced from the first egg. The two strongly abnormal young of these two 

 pairs were both from the second egg of the clutch. 



The black Brunn pouters listed in table 81 show abnormal "gray" birds (with 

 the white bars of the black parents replaced by the black liars) from both of the 

 latest laid eggs. The 4 birds from the second year of this mating all seem to have 

 had their white bars more or less replaced by red or black. 



"These birds mated about February I. 1 !)()<. and were tfiveu ;i separate coir. They copulated, built a nest, and, 

 although laying no CM;.;. bewail to sit on empty nest early in March. They were allowed to continue silling, which 

 they did for about _! weeks. Later, after leaving 1 he ne.-t for about a week, they returned to it as if to bc.uin u second 

 turn. This time also no eiic was laid, and the sitting continued for only about a week. A third attempt was made in 

 April, but without an etw. About May 1 and :! they besjan to build the same nest m the same place, and at leiuith, 

 ou May !l, the female laid her first (;! As this female was hatched May 'J, l!ll)S. she should have succeeijed in pro- 

 dlieingao e.mn early iii tin- winter. To have failed several times, up to May '.). shows that she is a degenerate." (C If, 



