COLOUR IXUEKITAXCE IX PIGEOXS. 615 



Finally, the study of the Mealy itself bears out this contention. 

 A dark ''Mealy' difiers from aViark 'Grizzle' in the fact that 

 the white portions of the latter are replaced by red and the 

 flights and tail instead of being black are white. In the Grizzles 

 we noted that thei-e wa.s a great tendency for the white to 

 increase till an almost pure white pigeon, showing only a few 

 coloured feathers, was produced. Matings of Mealy to Mealy 

 show an increase of the white, as is the case with Grizzles, till we 

 eventually get a white bird showing a few coloured (Blue or Red) 

 feathers. We must then come to the conclusion that in Mealies 

 it is the white that is replaced by red, and not the blue, and 

 therefore that a Mealy is a Grizzled bird in which the w^hite is 

 wholly or partially replaced by red. 



We have had "to go into this matter thoroughly as it offers 

 certain difficulties, which cannot be entirely cleared up till the 

 relationship of white and red have been further investigated ; 

 nevertheless the results of our experiments will offer no difficulty 

 if the red is considered as an alternative factor to the white. 



In our experiments with Mealies, one character has been 

 present in all the matings, namely Blue, or in its dilute form 

 Silver ; we may therefore dismiss it from our calculations. 



The only Chequer which appears (the one in fact by which the 

 red colour was originallv introduced) is shown in Exp. 179 ; 

 the only Grizzle bird from that mating (Mealy <S 54), whose 

 descendants form the large bulk of the Mealies, emphasizes the 

 truth of his inheritance, since no chequered bird has appeared in 

 spite of the lai-ge number bred. 



The Grizzle character in the Mealy or Mealy bred birds we 

 have already dealt with (Exps. 180-189, p. 611). The question 

 therefore left us to consider in dealing with the Mealy inherit- 

 ance is the question of Red and White. Red is apparently 

 dominant to White, and in consequence a Mealy is dominant to a 

 Grizzle. 



The following matings (see Table, p. 616) show the inheritance of 

 this character. It must be borne in mind that W & w are in this 

 case practically equivalent to G & g in the earlier part of this paper. 

 According to our present knowledge, when the Grizzle character 

 meets with either white or red tliey combine in their inheritance 

 to give either a Grizzle or a Meal}'. 



Taken as a whole, it Avill be seen that the results come remark- 

 ably near the expectation. In 5 of the 11 matings, in spite of 

 the small numbers, the results exactly bear out expectations; and 

 in all the others, with the exception of Exp. 181, the results are 

 sufficiently near to leave little doubt that a continuance of the 

 mating would have made them correct. 



Taking the expectations and results together but omitting Exp. 

 181 we get : — 



Expectation 2 M. 1 G. 1 S. Xo. of Matings 4. Result 18. 10. 9 

 2M. 2G. OS. „ „ 5. „ 11. 8.0 



in both of which sets there is a slight tendency to fewer 



