birding-aus

Re: Pedantry (phase v. morph); and leucism/melanism.

To:
Subject: Re: Pedantry (phase v. morph); and leucism/melanism.
From: Macwhirter <>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 18:06:03 +1100
 The beak
>>and legs were horn coloured, the eyes pinkish, most of the plumage a
>>washed out pale buff-grey, but the white and yellow feathers quite
>>normal.  Is this a "leucistic" bird, or just a "negatively melanistic"
>>bird??  ;-)
>>
>>
>It sounds like this bird was lacking in black melanin but not brown melanin,
>a condition which has been described  Campbell & Lack's Dictionary of Birds
>(Poyser, 1985). The learned term for this abnormality is (wait for it):
>"eumelanic schizochroism". I can't say I often use this expression in
>everyday conversation...
>
>Danny Rogers

Aviculturalists would call it a 'cinnamon'... but Danny's name is more fun.
With the pink eyes it is most likely to be transmitted as a sex-linked
recessive gene. Cinnamons are usually amongst the first 'mutations' to crop
up when wild birds are closely inbred and there is increased likelihood of
what ever recessive genes both parent birds are carrying being manifest
visually in their offspring.  I've had a blackbird with "eumelanic
schizochroism" brought into my vet clinic.

Pat Macwhirter



<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU