. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 954 II Vol. 74 On the Wing-Pattern of a Variant Magpie Pica pica (Linnaeus) By Mr. Alfred Hazelwood and Mr. Eric Gorton Received \lth December, 1953 A Magpie $ Pica pica pica (Linnaeus) from Halifax, Yorks, 5th March, 1951, is aberrant in pigmentation and in feather structure. The usual irridescence on wing and tail feathers is absent and the pigmentary colour is diluted to a deep bistre brown on the head, breast, rump and under-tail coverts, paling to drab on the lower back, tail and the wings except as noted hereafter. The primary and outer sec
. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 954 II Vol. 74 On the Wing-Pattern of a Variant Magpie Pica pica (Linnaeus) By Mr. Alfred Hazelwood and Mr. Eric Gorton Received \lth December, 1953 A Magpie $ Pica pica pica (Linnaeus) from Halifax, Yorks, 5th March, 1951, is aberrant in pigmentation and in feather structure. The usual irridescence on wing and tail feathers is absent and the pigmentary colour is diluted to a deep bistre brown on the head, breast, rump and under-tail coverts, paling to drab on the lower back, tail and the wings except as noted hereafter. The primary and outer secondary coverts are dull white, forming a distinct wing-bar which is the better defined by the lesser coverts and a bar at the base of the secondaries being of the same deep bistre as the The Variant Magpie. It seems reasonable to infer from this bird that the melanin deposition is governed by a complex of genes, at least one of which is linked with that responsible for the refractive structure of the feathers. It may well be that the wing-bar reflects an ancestral pattern now obscured by the over- riding melanin deposit activated by a separate gene. The legs and bill of the bird, which is now in the Bolton Museum collection, are a uniform chocolate Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Taylor, Nancy M. Oxford : Clarendon Press
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