At the October 1987, National Young Bird Show
in Louisville, Kentucky, Arwyn Taugner of St. Croix, Minnesota gave me
a blue T-pattern Checker Chinese Owl hen (IPB-86-495-BE) that displayed
a very interesting wing abnormality (Photo 1). Beneath her left wing
were ten additional flights and complimentary coverts growing directly
opposite the ten normal flights, but they were upside down. To be
a bit more specific, the ten extra flights were a "mirror image" of the
ten normal flights with the feather surfaces closing against the body and
their undersides facing the undersides of the normal flights. By
holding your hands together like a clamshell, as in prayer, the characteristic
may be more easily envisioned.
Photo No. 1
Taugner's Blue T-pattern Checker, Chinese Owl
hen (IPB-86-495-BE) displaying ten extra "mirror imaged" (inverted) flights
on the left wing. Photo by Ron Mangile.
Mated to a Brander Bronze Show Tippler male, nine (9)
offspring of both sexes were produced by June of 1988, all with normal
wings.
The first male offspring to mature was back-crossed
to Taugner's hen. Of eleven (11) offspring, eight (8) had at least
one wing containing only nine flights. Of the nine flighted progeny,
two hens displayed malpositioned feathers in their left wing. One
(1082-C) had several flights and some coverts upside down at the tip of
the somewhat shortened, left wing (Photo No. 2), and the other had a small
clump of extra feathers on the upper surface of the left wing at the joint,
between the fifth and sixth primaries. It seems pertinent that only
the left wing of females were involved.
Not satisfied with the results, the original hen was
paired to a black Racing Homer male and they produced four normal offspring
of both sexes. And later she was paired to a Chalky Racing Homer
male and produced two more normal offspring.
Paired to a son from the black Homer male, three more
normal offspring were produced. Paired to a son from the Chalky male,
five offspring were produced all normal except one that had a slightly
splayed right wing when fledged.
Only normal winged offspring were produced from other
pairing combinations which include... brother X sister; half brother X
half sister; other closely related birds; and F1's out-crossed to Racing
Homers. Only in the back-cross from the Show Tippler cock was any
abnormal wing condition produced that appeared similar to the condition
displayed in Taugner's Chinese Owl hen. The infusion of the Show
Tippler's genome may have been more conducive to its production its than
that of Racing Homers.
Only tentative conclusions can be drawn this time.
The total of seventeen (17) normal offspring produced from Taugner's hen,
when paired to three different males, indicates recessiveness for this
abnormal wing condition. The two abnormally winged, as in the Tippler
back-cross, further suggests recessiveness. The nine flighted condition
may or may not be considered to be an expression of the abnormal wing condition?
Though my limited breeding data indicates a recessive
nature, more breeding data is necessary for a better understanding of this
trait. Similar abnormalities have been observed by other fanciers.
I've listed a few blow:
- At a swap meet, several years ago, Mike Tuma of Oklahoma
displayed a Flying Tumbler squeaker with a stump wing.
- In 1991, Guy Marlar of Oklahoma, raised a Lahore
X Ice Pigeon hybrid with a stump wing.
-In PGNV&C (Issue #35, page 4), Biran Doige of
Alberta, Canada, writes that in 1990 he raised an offspring from a brother
X sister mating of mongrels (1/2 Chinese Owl, Ice Pigeon and Damascene)
with three extra, upside down, flights on the leading edge of the left
wing; along with other extra smaller feathers on both wings.
- Arwyn Taugner also raised other birds with varying
wing abnormalities; including a stump winged bird, and he assumed their
cause was hereditary.
- Lester "Paul" Gibson of Ohio has a line of birds
with similar conditions, including stump winged specimens. Taugner
forwarded stock to Gibson for breeding tests and comparison.
Whether this "mirror imaging" of wing feathers is unique
or only one expression in a wide range of expressions which include the
stump wing condition, is not known at this time. If you know of any
similar birds, reporting them would surely be of interest to some fanciers.
