Inheritance of the black hackle of the Indian Game bantam

1. An investigation was conducted among the progeny from crosses between pea-combed Indian Game and single combed double-laced Barnevelder bantams in an effort to determine the inheritance of the black hackle phenotype of the former. 2. The double-laced feather pattern phenotype of both breeds has been shown to depend upon homozygosity of both the linked eumelanin extension melanotic ML*M and the feather pattern arranging gene PG*P. However the hackles of the Indian Game are black, whilst those of the Barnevelder are partially striped, which suggests the presence of an extra eumelaniser in the genome of the Indian Game. This could not be due to variation at the extended black-E*-locus since the Indian Game and the Barnevelder have been shown respectively to depend upon the wheaten E*WH and brown E*B alleles; the former normally less heavily eumelanised. 3. A mating of a Barnevelder male with an Indian Game female produced 11 chicks, all of which were black in hackle. The mating of 2 F1 males with 5 Barnevelder females produced 35 chicks in the backcross to the double recessive, all of which were of parental phenotype. These comprised 18 peacomb, black in hackle and 17 single comb, partially striped hackle; classification being clear injuvenile plumage. 4. The absence of crossovers in the backcross suggest allelism or extremely close linkage between the loci of peacomb and the dominant eumelanin extension which causes the black in hackles. 5. The eumelanin extension isolated in this work appears therefore to be allelic to, if not a further manifestation of the well-established charcoal CHA*C gene.