THE PEESENCE OF THE BARRED PLUMAGE 

 PATTERN IN THE WHITE LEGHORN 

 BREED OF FOWLS 1 



DR. PHILIP B. HADLEY 



In connection with certain inheritance studies, which 

 were undertaken primarily with another purpose in view, 

 a quantity of data are at hand which relate to the con- 

 stitution of the White Leghorn breed of fowls. In the 

 course of the studies mentioned many crosses were made 

 between the White Leghorn (cO and females belonging 

 to a variety of black breeds, such as Black Hamburg, 

 Black Minorca, Black Java and Black Spanish. In F 2 , 

 and later generations, there appeared a proportion of 

 birds which possessed over the entire body a typical 

 barred plumage pattern. This circumstance led to an 

 inquiry regarding the source of this character in the 

 cases mentioned, and the results of this study appear 

 to warrant the conclusions presented in this paper. 



Experimental Results in F 1 

 The stock used in these experiments was the best that 

 could be obtained from reliable breeders who had bred 

 the respective varieties for a long period of years. In 

 all the crosses to be mentioned the White Leghorn $ was 

 used with black ??. First will be described the results 

 obtained from the mating: White Leghorn c? X Black 

 Hamburg % 



In the first generation from this cross nothing but 

 white birds was obtained (110 individuals). No birds 

 were, however, pure white. All showed black fleckings 

 which were apparent in some cases only upon close ob- 

 servation. In a small proportion of birds, both male3 

 and females, there were present from one to three 



Contribution No. 18 from the Biological Laboratory of the Rhode 

 Island Agricultural Experiment Station, Kingston, R. I. 



418 



