I crossed black Barbs (of two excellent strains) with purely-bred, snow-
white Fantails. The mongrels were generally quite black, with a few of the
primary wing and tail feathers white: others were dark reddish-brown, and
others snow-white: none had a trace of wing-bars or of the white croup. I
then paired together two of these mongrels, namely, a brown and black bird,
and their offspring displayed wing-bars, faint, but of a darker brown than
the rest of body. In a second brood from the same parents a brown bird was
produced, with several white feathers confined to the croup.
I crossed a male dun Dragon belonging to a family which had been dun-
coloured without wing-bars during several generations, with a uniform red
Barb (bred from two black Barbs); and the offspring presented decided but
faint traces of wing-bars. I crossed a uniform red male Runt with a White
trumpeter; and the offspring had a slaty-blue tail with a bar at the end,
and with the outer feathers edged with white. I also crossed a female black
and white chequered Trumpeter (of a different strain from the last) with a
male Almond-tumbler, neither of which exhibited a trace of blue, or of the
white croup, or of the bar at end of tail: nor is it probable that the
progenitors of these two birds had for many generations exhibited any of
these characters, for I have never even heard of a blue Trumpeter in this
country, and my Almond-tumbler was purely bred; yet the tail of this
mongrel was bluish, with a broad black bar at the end, and the croup was
perfectly white. It may be observed in several of these cases, that the
tail first shows a tendency to become by reversion blue; and this fact of
the persistency of colour in the tail and tail-coverts (6/29. I could give
numerous examples; two will suffice. A mongrel, whose four grandparents
were a white Turbit, white Trumpeter, white Fantail, and blue Pouter, was
white all over, except a very few feathers about the head and on the wings,
but the whole tail and tail-coverts were dark bluish-grey. Another mongrel
whose four grandparents were a red Runt, white Trumpeter, white Fantail,
and the same blue Pouter, was pure white all over, except the tail and
upper aill-coverts, which were pale fawn, and except the faintest trace of
double wing-bars of the same pale fawn tint.) will surprise no one who has
attended to the crossing of pigeons.
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