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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LII 



and blues. If, as I suspect, the ''recessive" white was a 

 true recessive from another race, their results can only 

 be interpreted by assuming that the "white" gametes as 

 well as "black" gametes produced by the blue fowl car- 

 ried a factor necessary for pigment production, which 

 was lacking in the recessive whites. 



If the latter is the case it accords with results I have 

 obtained the past season. Among several matings made, 

 preliminary to a further study of Andalusian blue, a white 

 Wyandotte <$ (R 840 from the University of Wisconsin 

 flock) was mated with blue-splashed Andalusian $$ M 

 409 and M 539 (also kindly furnished by the poultry de- 

 partment of the University of Wisconsin). From M 409 

 seven chicks were hatched, all of which were unmistakably 

 bluish-gray. Six chicks which failed to hatch, but which 

 did develop far enough for the color of the down to be de- 

 termined, were also all blues. From M 539, brought in 

 late in the season with the hope of increasing the numbers 

 of chicks from this type of mating, three chicks were se- 

 cured, which were again all bluish-gray. On the assump- 

 tion that Wyandotte white is recessive (I am surprised to 

 find no statement to this effect in the literature) these 

 results would seem to indicate that a factor necessary for 

 pigment formation as well as one causing the character- 

 istic arrangement or restriction of the pigment found in 

 blues, and both lacking in the Wyandotte, were furnished 

 by the blue-splashed Andalusian. And further that a 

 factor for the extension of this pigment to all feathers on 

 the body was furnished by the Wyandotte. The blue off- 

 spring from this mating are assuredly not intermediates 

 between a pure white parent and one that appears to be 

 nearly white. 



It is significant to note in this connection that the blue- 

 gray offspring of the white Wyandotte X blue-splashed 

 Andalusian cross show pigment granules that are pre- 

 dominatingly round. In some individuals they all appear 

 to be round, while in others some rods may be made 

 out. The down of black chicks, offspring of a blue Anda- 



