234 
Miscellanea 
VII. Note on Partial Leucosis in a Hen. 
We owe the following account and photographs to the kindness of Mr W. Coles Finch of 
Luton, Chatham. Inquiry seems to show that the experience is uncommon among poultry- 
breeders, and its publication may lead to further observation of like phenomena, which would 
possibly throw light on whether plumage without moult can change by loss of pigment and 
thus otherwise than by abrasion. 
The father of the hen in question was a pure Indian Game and the mother a true Houdan. 
Seven broods of this cross came under notice. In five the birds, watched to the third year, 
remained black. In the other two cases the broods of chickens were all true black. In one 
brood, however, one bird, a hen, turned from black to spotted in her first year, she has been 
spotted, not white, ever since, but the spots have diminished each year. Her present con- 
dition is given in Fig. 1. She has been crossed with an Indian Game and had two spotted black 
and wliite chickens. In the second brood one hen on the approach of her first winter gradually 
got paler and ])a\er, turned into gray and finally pure white before the end of the year. No 
photograph unfortunately was taken. She remained white all next summer but after moult 
renewed her plumage to spotted black and white. She is shown in Fig. 2 with a normal sister 
for comparison. She remained spotted all next summer, but when her sisters moulted, she shed 
her tail-feathers only ; on wing and body feathers the black gradually changed to white. This 
commenced in beginning of October and by November 1 she was nearly quite white, as shown in 
Fig. 3*. By the middle of November she was i^ractically pure white (the mark on wing occurring 
on one feather being the last vestige of black) as is shown in Fig. 4, a sister being given for com- 
parison (the light colour is only reflection of sheen). On Fig. 5 black and white feathers plucked 
from time to time from October to November are given to indicate that the change appears to be 
one of pigment and scarcely of feather or due to abrasion. The bird has thus been once 
black, once white, then once spotted and again white. It was mated this year with an Indian 
Game but unfortunately has died without laying. 
* The plumage is somewhat disarranged after a struggle in catching her. 
Fig. 1. 
