INHERITANCE OF THE WHITE AND PIED PLUMAGE COLOR PATTERNS IN THE INDIAN PEAFOWL (PAVO-CRISTATUS)

The pied, dark pied, white, and blue white-flight plumage color phenotypes are described, and their relationships to each other explained. Crosses among and between these phenotypes and the wild-type blue indicate that a single autosomal locus is responsible for all of these phenotypes. The white mutant allele (W) when homozygous produces an all-white plumage. This allele is shown to be a weak incomplete dominant with about 60% penetrance when heterozygous with the wild-type allele (w+), and this combination produces the blue white-flight phenotype. The pied phenotype does not breed true but produces whites, pieds, and dark pieds in a 1:2:1 ratio. Dark pieds breed true with about 79% penetrance, and when bred to whites produce all pieds. Thus, pieds are heterozygous for two mutant alleles (W/w(pd)). In this three-allelic series, the white allele (W) is the most dominant and the dark pied allele (w(pd)) the most recessive (W > w+ > w(pd)).