Genetics of Birchen Plumage Pattern in the Fowl

BIRCHEN phenotype consists in fractionated pyle-zoned restriction, associated with black ground color and laced breast feathers in both sexes (American Standard of Perfection, 1953). It is found in the Birchen Game and Game Bantam as silver-on-black, and the same pattern appears in the Gray Japanese Bantam. Identity of patterning obtains in the Brown-red or Brown-breasted Game, except that silver is replaced by gold. Experimental evidence submitted below demonstrates Brown-red to be a gold variety of Birchen, and since multiplicity of breed names applied to the same basic pattern is cumbersome and confusing, the present report designates the variants as Silver Birchen (Birchen) and Golden Birchen (Brown-red), respectively. Bateson and Punnett (1906) found Golden Birchen dominant to Black-breasted Red on a monofactorial autosomal basis. Illustrations of wild type striped Black-breasted Red, and non-striped black Golden Birchen chicks were published by Bateson (1910). Hagedoorn (1909) reported Black-breasted Red dominant to Golden Birchen, …