86 MR. K. STAPLES-BKOWXE OX [Feb. 18, 



Exp. 26.— Blue -«-. f. 2 36 x Blue w. f. o 13. Both these birds 

 were I'aised in Exp. 16. 



Of the oflspring 4 -were white. One (69) was the blue foi"m 

 without any white feathers. This is the onh/ blue bird without 

 ■white feathers raised from the mating of two blues with white. 

 Five were blue with white feathers, and of these one (75) had 

 only 4 white feathers on the head, a yerv few on the thighs, and 

 a few white under tail-coyerts. Another (78) had a few on the 

 rump, yent, and thighs, and some under tail-coyerts. The other 

 three showed more white than those described in Exps. 24 k, 25 ; 

 one of them ha-\-ing 12 and another 11 white flights as well as 

 some white wing-feathers oyer them, whilst the thii-d had 17 out 

 of 21 tail-feathers white, in addition to the white on the head, 

 neck, rump, yent, thighs, and under tail-coverts. 



Series C. 



Blues mated to Blacks. 



Four diflerent kinds of matings were made of blues and blacks. 

 Birds which did not contain white and also those in which 

 white was carried were used. For results of the matinsfs see 

 Table TV. 



Details of Exps. 27 — 31. 



Exp. 27.— F. 3 Blue $ 98 x Black Barb S 100. 



The 2 had no white feathers, and had previously been shown 

 not to contain white {v. Exp. 14). The S was received from 

 !Mr. Edwards of Exeter, who said that he believed it to have been 

 bred from blacks for four generations and before that from a 

 dun 2 . The result of the mating was 8 blacks and 1 dim. No 

 white feathei's were seen on any of the young bii'ds. Very 

 slight indications of wing-bars were noticeable on some of the 

 blacks, the ground-colour being rather more sooty or smoky than 

 in the birds previously described, and so causing the bars to 

 stand out as a dead black. These bars were much more con- 

 spicuous in the next generation (r. Exp. 32). In the Dun (y. 

 unte) the tail-bar was very obvious, being of a much darker shade 

 than the groimd-coloui\ This bird was not bred fi'om. 



Exp. 28.— F. 8 Blue 2 97 x F. 3 Black w. f. o 6. 



The 2 97 had no white feathers, and as ah-eady shown in 

 lExp. 10, when mated to a blue with white feathers gave blues 

 and blues with white feathers only. 



The (S 6 had white feathers, and has been shown (Exp. 8) to 

 contain white. 



The result gave 9 young, of which 5 were black and 4 blue. 

 Of the blacks three had some white feathers and two had not, 

 and of the blues two had white feathers and two had not. One 

 of the blues "v\ith white feathers died when a fortnight old, and 

 only one white feather could then be seen. The amoiuit of white 

 in the birds showing this character varied very considerably. 



