Posthumous Works of Charles Otis Whitman; Professor of Zoology in the University of Chicago, 1892-1910; Director of Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, 1888-1908 Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 edition. Excerpt: ...(1), with a male black pouter produced but a single pair of eggs (no record of hatching); three abortive attempts at egg-laying show, however, that this female, from the very first egg of the season, was a degenerate; the red bars of her adult plumage indicate the same. 3 (G 16) Two of the sisters of this bird, from very late in the season, were also degenerates. Concerning this pair the following statement is found: "Degenerates 9 8 and Q 9: Female 8 was hatched October 10, 1908. She is dark gray, having bars red with black border. A neat bird but a degenerate as shown by color, and by her failure to produce an egg March 6, 1909, when mated with a strong male black pouter. "Female 9 hatched October 11, 1908--white Her feathers were slow and very irregular in growth; she was never able to fly, but lived until January 27, 1909. She was kept in the house and well cared for, and there was no cause for death but weakness. The legs of this bird sprawled, so that walking was diflicult; her motions were very shaky, the head shaking like a fantail; the primaries hung loosely apart." (G 16, R16) These birds are shown in pl. 17. Several other pouters of the same series (hatched in 1908) were mated brotherto-sister during the following year. The records of 3 such pairs is given in table 80. In 1909, pair 1 threw, from the last clutch of record, a bird with deficient pigmentation and "diverging legs." Two normal birds had preceded it. Only a single clutch of eggs was laid (March) during the following year. The bird from the first egg here had white wing-bars and was too lightly pigmented; that from the second egg had black bars with traces of red. Pairs 2 and 3 of these brother-tosister matings eaeh threw a solid red or...