32 



INHERITANCE IN POULTRY. 

 TABLE OF CHARACTERISTICS. 



REMARKS ON THE CHARACTERISTICS. 



1 . General Plumage Color. — The adult Minorca has a completely glossy 

 black plumage. In the chick of two weeks the whole ventral surface is 

 covered with a white down, and certain of the primaries, especially those at 

 the distal end of the series, are partly or wholly white. The coverts over- 

 lying these reminges are usually white also. The white on the wing grad- 

 ually disappears in successive molts. 



The adult Dark Brahma has a sexual dimorphism of color. The female 

 (fig. 1 8) is nearly uniformly penciled black and straw color. The hackles 

 have a broad whitish margin and the inner half of the vane is solid black. 

 The male (fig. 19) has solid glossy greenish-black feathers in the tail, white 

 feathers on top of the head, in the middle of the back and upper wing 

 coverts ; below black. Feathers with narrow black central stripe and broad 

 white margin (lacing) constitute nape, hackle, and saddle. Red occurs on 

 wing bar and humeral patch. In the down plumage Brahmas of both sexes 

 are longitudinally striped buff and black. 



2. Wing Bars. — The wing bar of the male Dark Brahma depends upon 

 the fact that the wing coverts of the second and third rows (which are black 

 at the base) have a white tip and a transverse band of red in the middle 

 between black and white. In the higher coverts and on the shoulder the 

 red still occurs, but it is reduced in extent. 



3. Comb. — ^The single comb is found on Gallus bankiva and has sometimes 

 been regarded as the only ancestral form. The pea comb is a distinct type, 

 consisting of a median comb bordered on each side by an accessory comb. 

 The origin of the pea comb is obscure but certainly ancient. Wright (1902, 

 pp. 265, 330, 339) contends that it arose in the Aseel, a type of oriental fowl 

 regarded as the ancestor of the Malays and Indian Games and believed not 

 to have originated from Gallus bankiva, but to represent a distinct species. 

 According to this view the pea comb has not arisen from the single, but is 

 coordinate with it and of equal age. From the ancestral breed it has become 



