1908.] INHERITANCE OF COLOUR IN PIGEONS. 89 



Exp. 33,— Blue chequered black $ 99 x Blue chequered black 



with few white feathers d' 16. 

 These tAvo birds raised in Exp. 30 wei-e selected as showing the 

 lightest type with chequering. The wing- bars were very distinct. 

 cJ 16 had a few white feathers at the vent. 



The mating produced six birds all of the chequered type with 

 clearly defined wing-bars. Of these four showed no white, and 

 the other two had a very few white feathers. 



Barb-Nun Cross. 



In this cross three matings only were made, and twenty-eight 

 young produced. The experiment was originally started, as 

 stated in the introduction, in order to cross the F. 1 Barb-Nun 

 generation with the F. 1 Barb-Fantail. Some further matings 

 were, however, made in order to investigate the inheritance of 

 the "shell" {v. infra), the results of which, together with some 

 other crosses in experiments on the same character, are described 

 in P.Z.S. 1905, vol. ii. p. 550. The Black Barb c? used in this 

 mating was obtained through the medium of a Poultry advertising 

 paper, and no details of its pedigree were obtainable. This bird 

 had white irides, the beak white tipped with black, the claws 

 white, the eye-wattles bright red. 



The Nun Pigeon. (Pigeon Coquille HoUandais.) 



A curious structural character presented by this bird is the 

 " shell," which is a tuft of reversed feathers standing up at the 

 back of the head, having an appeai-ance somewhat like that of a 

 cockle-shell. After this point, attention is paid by breeders to its 

 colour and markings. It is a white bird with certain coloured 

 markings forming a very definite pattern. The markings are 

 found in several colours, of which black, blue, dun, red, and 

 yellow are the chief. By far the greatest number are black, 

 and this was the colour of the 5 used in these experiments. 

 The head, as far back as the " shell," is black, but the coloured 

 feathers do not extend into the shell. The chin and throat are 

 black, forming what is known as the " bib." Ten outer flight- 

 feathers on each wing should be black; in the specimen used, 

 however, there were only seven black flights in one wing and 

 eight in the other. There were also two black secondaries and 

 two black tertiaries, as well as a few black feathers at the carpal 

 joints. The tail is black, as also are the upper and under tail- 

 coverts. These markings should be very definite or " clean cut," 

 and there should be no black on any other part of the plumage. 

 The $ used, however, had two black feathex'S on the back. The 

 black in the bird used was not a deep rich colour, as is found in 

 the Barb ; and it is stated by breeders that many Black Nuns are 

 found whose colour is rather smoky. This was noticed in some of 

 the oflTspring of the cross. The irides are white, and there 

 appears to be no difliculty in breeding this character true in this 



