I have heard that the red receptor gene is carried on the x chromosome and
that there are at least two different types of red receptor gene. Thus
women, with two x chromosomes, can inherit both types and can sometimes I
believe, see a speckled color looking at an uniform red as the two types of
red receptor genes can express differently in adjacent cones in the eye.
Men, with a single x chromosome, can of course only inherit one type of
gene. See also http://www.hhmi.org/senses/b130.html
Do not despair though - I have much better colour vision than my wife.
Tim Murphy
-----Original Message-----
From:
Behalf Of Brian Fleming
Sent: Monday, 28 June 2004 3:02 PM
To: ;
Subject: Re: Blue Jay for BFCS
> X-Sender:
> From: "Paul Coddington" <>
>Does anyone have any idea why BFCS would be called Blue Jay,
> given that they are not blue, and don't seem to bear any relation
> to jays (Eurasian or North American)?
>
> Paul Coddington
> Adelaide, South Australia
>
Names are only labels after all - to quote Dr. Leach of Leach's
'Australian Bird book'
The adjectives 'blue' and 'red' are often used in a non-literal sense
when naming or describing animals and birds.
'Blue' is quite often used to indicate a blue-grey colour, as in 'blue
heeler dog', and 'red' quite a dull rufous - just think of the
Red-necked Avocet, and the European Robin Redbreast. I have read many
bird descriptions in which blue and red clearly did not mean anything
like sapphire or vermilion.
(I have noticed than many male humans have a degree of colour-blindness
or Daltonism - they find distinguishing between different reds as
scarlet, crimson, or flame impossible because all appear as a dull or
muddy rufous).
Back to the Bifcus (an acronym if you hadn't spotted it)- a
conspicuous bird of a bluish-grey colour which needs a label - Blue to
start with, and Blue-jay was a known combination to the immigrant. It is
no sillier than our Magpies or Robins.
I refuse to speculate as to why Apostlebirds are known as 'Lousy
Jacks'.
Anthea Fleming
in Ivanhoe (Vic)
>
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