Dominant white plumage-color somatic mosaic in the domestic fowl

An unusual feather-color mosaic of the variegated type is described in the fowl. The bird, a female, has the e+/e+ wild-type plumage pattern with light tan or buffish colored feathers intermingled over her sides and dorsal surface. This condition is bilateral and symmetrical with whole feathers being diluted in some areas and parts of feathers in others. Breeding tests with e+/e+ males showed that the bird was heterozygous for dominant white (l/i+) and homozygous for e+. All her e+/e+, l/i+ offspring were of the red-pyle pattern as would be expected from that genotype. The possible cause of this mosaic condition may be due either to the loss of the l-bearing locus or to a reverse mutation to i+ in neural crest cells destined to become the primordial melanoblasts.