The description, behavior, and morphologic measurements are presented for two hybrid crosses of domesticated chicken and guineafowl. The ease at which gallinaceous birds hybridize might warrant a closer look at the classification system. Possibly the number of families in the superfamily Phasianoidea should be reduced as some other researchers suggest

Hanebrink, Earl L.

English

UARK (University of Arkansas )

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science Volume 30 Article 17 1976 Characteristics and Behavior of Guineafowl and Domesticated Chicken Hybrids Earl L. Hanebrink Arkansas State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas  Part of the Behavior and Ethology Commons, and the Zoology Commons Recommended Citation Hanebrink, Earl L. (1976) "Characteristics and Behavior of Guineafowl and Domesticated Chicken Hybrids," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 30 , Article 17. Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol30/iss1/17 This article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able to read, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu. ¦44 Arkansas Academy of Science Proceedings, Vol. XXX,1976Characteristics and Behavior of Guineaf owlandDomesticated Chicken HybridsEARLL. HANEBRINKDivisionof Biological Science, Arkansas State University, State University, Arkansas 72467ABSTRACTThe description, behavior, and morphologic measurements are presented for twohybridcrosses of domesticated chicken and guineafowl. The ease at which gallinaceous birdshybridize might warrant a closer look at the classification system. Possibly the number offamilies in the superfamily Phasianoidea should be reduced as some other researcherssuggest.INTRODUCTIONHybridization occurs at the species, genus, and family levelsamong domesticated birds. In gallinaceous birds it has occurredamong species of different families (Hanebrink 1973a, b). Isolatingmechanisms, however, normallykeep these crosses to a minimum.The purpose of this report is to describe the characteristics ofcrosses between guineafowl and domesticated chickens. Ghigi(1900). Heinroth and Heinroth (1955), and others reported suchcrosses. The Heinroth's (1955) stated that both peacocks anddomestic cocks are known to mate successfully with guineafowlhens, but the offspring show no sexual behavior because their sexglands hardly develop at all. Such hybrids are sometimes mentallyabnormal and are always undistinguished in color; instead of beingthe sum of their two parents they are an unseemly mosaic of both.The breeding dress of the peacock and the elegant spotting of theguineafowl are the results of factors inherited from two birds of thesame species; because the hybrids get only one dose of inheritanceforeither species, the characteristics of each parental type tend to bediluted. Recently Hanebrink (1973a, b) published reports on a crossbetween guineafowl and peafowl. Reports have been written onvarious hybrids of gallinaceous species. Some of these crosses havebeen induced artificially by artificial insemination. Domesticatedchicken-quail hybrids (Gallus gallus x Coturnix coturnix japonica\were produced successfully by Mitsumoto and Nishida (1958) and byWilcox and Clark (1961). Several crosses have been attemptedbetween domesticated turkeys (Meleagris gallapavo) anddomesticated chickens (Warren and Scott 1935). Published reports ofturkey-chicken crosses indicate that only a limited number of fertileeggs were obtained and few advanced embryos (Ogorodii 1935.Quinn et al. 1937. Asmundson and Lorenz 1957). Olson (1960)reported successful hatching of chicken-turkey hybrids; he found atotal of 302 embryos (14.2%) among 2,132 eggs incubated. One-hundred twenty of these embryos had attained an age at which downcolor established hybridization. Twenty-three hybrids hatched. It isevident from Olson's study that under certain conditions,spermatozoa from Dark Cornish and Rhode Island males are capableof fertilizing turkey eggs. An early account by Edwards (1761)reported a cross between a turkey and pheasant.Crosses between peafowl and guineafowl have been reported bySerebrovsky (1929), Ghigi (1900), Taibel (1955), Heinroth andHeinroth ( 1955), Mayball(1961 ).and Hanebrink (1973a, b).From crosses of turkeys and domesticated chickens, Olson (1960)reported all males. Wilcox and Clark (1961 ) gave no sex ratios amongtheir artificial-insemination crosses of the Coturnix quail anddomesticated chicken. Haldane (1922) concluded that in the Fi off-spring of a cross between two animals' species, one sex is absent,rare, or sterile. That sex is always the heterogametic sex. Inbirds theheterogametic sex is the female whereas inmammals it is the male.Anincreased percentage of males has been found in the Fi genera-tion in interhybrid crosses among gallinaceous birds. Ghigi (1936)reported onlymales incrosses between domestic fowl and guineafowland guineafowl and peafowl. From color markings the hybridguineafowl x peafowl cross reported by Hanebrink (1973a, b) wasthought to be a female, although no eggs were laid and no autopsywas performed. This hybrid is livingand associates itself with otherpeafowl. According to Cole and Hollander (1950), a cross of a malepigeon with a female dove produces offspring which are all malesand these are sterile when mated to pigeons. When this hybridimated to a dove of the parental species, however, it occasionallyproduces a three-fourths dove. Such offspring are all males ancsterile. Amale dove mated with a female pigeon produces both maleand female offspring of which all the females are barren.DESCRIPTION OF DOMESTICATEDCHICKEN—GUINEAFOWL HYBRIDSChicken-guineafowl hybrids (Figs. 1.2) were hatched from guineaFigure 1.Hybrid of White Leghorn and White Guineafowl.Figure 2. Hybrid ofBuffCochin and White Guineafowl.44Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 30 [1976], Art. 17Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1976Earl L.Hanebrinkeggs under natural barnyard conditions. In this situation two femalewhite guineas were enclosed in a pen with several breeds of domes-ticated chickens. No male guineafowl were included in the enclosure.From a total of30 guineafowl eggs, onlyone hatched; itproduced thewhite hybrid (Fig. 1). The eggs were incubated by a domesticatedduck and one of the female white guineafowl. All the other eggsfrom these two settings either were infertile or at least no develop-ment of embryos occurred to the hatching point.The buff hybrid (Fig. 2) hatched from a total of 12 eggs. Four ofthese eggs were fertile to the point of the eggs being pipped. Twoactually hatched from this setting but one chick died the first day.Both the buff and white hybrids (Figs. 1, 2) were reared with babychicks and are now more than two years old. During the spring of1974 copulation between the female white guineafowl and the twodomesticated roosters was observed several times by David Remagen(pers. commun.) who is the owner of the hybrids. Morphologicmeasurements for the two female white guineafowl were practicallyidentical. It was not known whether the hybrids came from onefemale guineafowl or both, but the father of the pure white hybridhad to be the White Leghorn rooster as there was no feathering onthe tarsus and the color was pure white. The father of the buffhybridhad feathering on the tarsus which is characteristic of the BuffCochin rooster. The hybrid was also buff, even though the femaleguineafowl was white. Neither hybrid shows any visible sexcharacteristics in its behavior, and they fare equally well withchickens and guineas but usually associate with each other. Theyfeed and roost with both chickens andguineafowl but are seldomincluded in a flock of either chickens or guineas in their normalroutine.The hybrid from the female white guineafowl and male WhiteLeghorn is solid white and is generally intermediate (Table I)between the parents in morphologic measurements but actually issmaller in stature than either parent. This hybrid has bright orangelegs whichare guinea-like but weak. The bird is wobbly as it walks.This cross has typical guineafowl stance with the tail elevatedsomewhat like that of the chicken. Waddles are vestigal and the facehas sparce feathering, a characteristic of the guineafowl. There isnohelmet like that of the guineafowl nor is there a comb like that of thedomesticated chicken. There is a small round tubercle near the baseof the upper bill which is characteristic of neither the chicken northe guineafowl.The cross between the male BuffCochin and female white guinea-fowl is mainlylarger (Table I)inmorphologic measurements than theparent birds but is intermediate instature. The color is a general buffwith some feathering on the tarsus whichis characteristic of the maleBuff Cochin. The feathering on the tarsus, however, does notcompare with that of the parent. This hybrid also has a guineafowlstance with its tail elevated like that of the domesticated chicken. Italso has vestigal waddles and does not have the helmet characteristicof guineafowl. There is no comb but there is a slight protuberance atthe base of the upper bill whichboth parents lack. The tips of the tailfeathers are vermiculated and similar in coloring to those of thetypical pearl guineafowl. The genetic origin of this characteristic isnot known. The white guineafowl is amutation from the wildpearlAfrican guineafowl and possibly they still carry some hidden genesfor this characteristic. Acommon coloring fault among BuffCochinsis black feathers in the tail. However, the parent BuffCochin maledid not have this fault, and the hybrid's tail feathers were pearl-guinealike rather than black.SOCIALBEHAVIOR OF THEHYBRIDSEven though the guineafowl-domesticated chicken hybrids werereared with baby chickens they prefer to remain to themselves. Theyboth show no visible sex characteristics and are calm under normalconditions. However, they are extremely nervous when caught andare easily frightened when cornered in contrast to either parent.Their voice is somewhat guinealike although different. They neveruse their voice unless frightened. Peafowl-guineafowl hybridsassociate more withother peafowl than they do withguineafowl. Theguineafowl-domesticated chicken hybrids seem to have nopreference but associate witheach other. These hybrids are similar toguineafowl in their agonistic behavior as they are very hostile towarddomesticated chickens while feeding which is a characteristic ofguineafowl.CONCLUSIONSCrosses between domesticated chickens and guineafowl have beenreported as well as a large number of crosses among other membersof the superfamily Phasianoidea. The cross reported here representsspecies in different families of the superfamily Phasianoidea. Thedomesticated chicken had been placed in the family Phasianidae andthe guineafowl in the family Numididae. Most published accountsmention the hybrids but give little description of the behavior ormorphologic measurements. This report includes descriptions of thebehavior and morphologic characters of such a cross. Though gamebreeders do notadvocate interhybrid crosses, these crosses do occurboth naturally and under artificial conditions. Sarvella (1969)mentions that these crosses can be valuable research tools.Cytological and biochemical (serum protein) studies of intergenericand interfamilial crosses help to advance the understanding of evolu-tionary trends which lead to classification systems. Also, they canmake itpossible to devise techniques for transferring genes from wildbirds to domestic ones. The ease with which gallinaceous birds seemto hybridize suggests a closer look at the classification system.Possibly the number of families in the superfamily Phasianoideashould be reduced as suggested by Yamashina (1952) and Mainardi(1959).ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe writer is most grateful for the cooperation of DavidRemagen inpermitting the hybrids to be studied. Photo-graphic work was done by Dr. Harvey Barton, AssociateProfessor of Zoology, and Dr.James Hutchison, ProfessorofBotany, Arkansas State University.Table I.Comparison of Morphological Characters of Guineafowl-Domesticated Chicken Cross withThose ofParent BirdsWhite Guinea Hybrid White White Leghorn Hybrid Buff Buff CochinCharacters in cm r, * j,Culmen 3.5 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0Tarsus 8.0 8.0 10.0 9.5 12.0Middle Toe 4.3 5.0 5.5 6.2 5.3Middle Toe with Nail 5.0 6.0 6.5 7.5 6.0Bend of Wing (length 12.70 10.16 12.70 15.24 14.00outward frombend.)Total Wing Length 33.02 30.48 35.60 33.02 40.60Arkansas Academy of Science Proceedings, Vol. XXX,1976 4545Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 30 [1976], Art. 17https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol30/iss1/1746 Arkansas Academy of Science Proceedings, Vol. XXX,1976Characteristics and Behavior of Guineaf owland Domesticated Chicken HybridsLITERATURECITEDASMUNDSON, V.S. and F.W. LORENZ. 1957. Hybrids of ring-necked pheasants, turkeys and domesticated fowl. PoultryScience 36: 1323-1334.COLE, L.I.and W.F. HOLLANDER. 1950. Hybrids of pigeons byringed dove. Amer. Naturalist 84:275-308.EDWARDS, G. 1761. An account of a bird supposed to be bredbetween a turkey and pheasant. Trans. Roy. Soc., London 51-pt.2, B:415-417.GHIGI, A. 1900. Diun ibrido fra Numida e Pavone. Monit. Zool.Ital.Anno XI(cited from Taibel).GHIGI, A. 1936. Galline de faraone e tacchini. Ulrico Hoepli,Milano.HALDANE,I.B.S. 1922. Sex ratio and unisexual sterility in hybridanimals. I.Genetics 12:101-109.HANEBRINK, E.L. 1973a. Characteristics and behavior of a pea-fowl-guinea hybrid. Game Bird Breeders, Aviculturists, Zoolo-gists and Conservationists Gazette 22:8-11.HANEBRINK, E.L. 1973b. Taxonomic relationship of hybrid pea-fowl-guineafowl: preliminary study of serum protein. Proc. Ark.Acad. Sci. 27—33-34.HEINROTH, OSKAR and KATHARINAHEINROTH. 1955. Ausdem Leben der Voegel. 2nd ed. Springer- Verlag, Berlin-Goettingen-Heidelberg. 181pp.MAINARDI,DANILO. 1959. Immunological distances among somegallinaceous birds. Nature 184:913-914.MAYBALL,O. 1961. An unusual hybrid. Game Bird Breeders,Aviculturists, Zoologists, and Conservationists Gazette. Nov.,p36.MITSUMOTO, K. and S. NISHIDA. 1958. Trials of production ofthe hybrid between quails and chickens. I.lap. Zootech. Sci29:10.OGOROD1I, II.1935. Hybridization of unrelated birds in Askania-Nova. Bull.AllUnion Acad. Agri.Science (Lenin)1:25.OLSON, M.W. 1960. Turkey-chicken hybrids. I.Heredity 51:69-73.QUINN,J.P., W.H. BURROWS and T.O. BYERLY. 1937. Turkey-chicken hybrids. I.Heredity 28:169-173.SARVELLA,P. 1969. Avian nybrids using wild birds are valuableresearch tools. Game BirdBreeders, Aviculturists, Zoologists,and Conservationists Gazette. Oct.-Nov., p.6.SEREBROVSKY, A.S. 1929. Observations on interspecific hybridsof the fowl.I.Genetics 21:327-340.TAIBEL, A.M. 1955. Su taluni ibridi o rari o nuovi alia scienzaibridologica. Rivistra Italiana diOrnithologia XXV:1-27.WARREN, D.C. and H.M. SCOTT. 1935. An attempt to produceturkey-chicken hybrids. I.Heredity 26:105-107.WILCOX,F.H. and O.E. CLARK. 1961. Chicken-quail hybrids. JHeredity 52:167-170.YAMASHINA, Y. 1952. La Kromosomo 14:536 (cited fromMainardi).46Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 30 [1976], Art. 17Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1976

Characteristics and Behavior of Guineafowl and Domesticated Chicken Hybrids

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Journal of the Arkansas Academy of ScienceVolume 30 Article 171976Characteristics and Behavior of Guineafowl andDomesticated Chicken HybridsEarl L. HanebrinkArkansas State UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaasPart of the Behavior and Ethology Commons, and the Zoology CommonsThis article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able toread, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking priorpermission from the publisher or the author.This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academyof Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu, ccmiddle@uark.edu.Recommended CitationHanebrink, Earl L. (1976) "Characteristics and Behavior of Guineafowl and Domesticated Chicken Hybrids," Journal of the ArkansasAcademy of Science: Vol. 30 , Article 17.Available at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol30/iss1/17¦44 Arkansas Academy of Science Proceedings, Vol. XXX,1976Characteristics and Behavior of Guineaf owlandDomesticated Chicken HybridsEARLL. HANEBRINKDivisionof Biological Science, Arkansas State University, State University, Arkansas 72467ABSTRACTThe description, behavior, and morphologic measurements are presented for twohybridcrosses of domesticated chicken and guineafowl. The ease at which gallinaceous birdshybridize might warrant a closer look at the classification system. Possibly the number offamilies in the superfamily Phasianoidea should be reduced as some other researcherssuggest.INTRODUCTIONHybridization occurs at the species, genus, and family levelsamong domesticated birds. In gallinaceous birds it has occurredamong species of different families (Hanebrink 1973a, b). Isolatingmechanisms, however, normallykeep these crosses to a minimum.The purpose of this report is to describe the characteristics ofcrosses between guineafowl and domesticated chickens. Ghigi(1900). Heinroth and Heinroth (1955), and others reported suchcrosses. The Heinroth's (1955) stated that both peacocks anddomestic cocks are known to mate successfully with guineafowlhens, but the offspring show no sexual behavior because their sexglands hardly develop at all. Such hybrids are sometimes mentallyabnormal and are always undistinguished in color; instead of beingthe sum of their two parents they are an unseemly mosaic of both.The breeding dress of the peacock and the elegant spotting of theguineafowl are the results of factors inherited from two birds of thesame species; because the hybrids get only one dose of inheritanceforeither species, the characteristics of each parental type tend to bediluted. Recently Hanebrink (1973a, b) published reports on a crossbetween guineafowl and peafowl. Reports have been written onvarious hybrids of gallinaceous species. Some of these crosses havebeen induced artificially by artificial insemination. Domesticatedchicken-quail hybrids (Gallus gallus x Coturnix coturnix japonica\were produced successfully by Mitsumoto and Nishida (1958) and byWilcox and Clark (1961). Several crosses have been attemptedbetween domesticated turkeys (Meleagris gallapavo) anddomesticated chickens (Warren and Scott 1935). Published reports ofturkey-chicken crosses indicate that only a limited number of fertileeggs were obtained and few advanced embryos (Ogorodii 1935.Quinn et al. 1937. Asmundson and Lorenz 1957). Olson (1960)reported successful hatching of chicken-turkey hybrids; he found atotal of 302 embryos (14.2%) among 2,132 eggs incubated. One-hundred twenty of these embryos had attained an age at which downcolor established hybridization. Twenty-three hybrids hatched. It isevident from Olson's study that under certain conditions,spermatozoa from Dark Cornish and Rhode Island males are capableof fertilizing turkey eggs. An early account by Edwards (1761)reported a cross between a turkey and pheasant.Crosses between peafowl and guineafowl have been reported bySerebrovsky (1929), Ghigi (1900), Taibel (1955), Heinroth andHeinroth ( 1955), Mayball(1961 ).and Hanebrink (1973a, b).From crosses of turkeys and domesticated chickens, Olson (1960)reported all males. Wilcox and Clark (1961 ) gave no sex ratios amongtheir artificial-insemination crosses of the Coturnix quail anddomesticated chicken. Haldane (1922) concluded that in the Fi off-spring of a cross between two animals' species, one sex is absent,rare, or sterile. That sex is always the heterogametic sex. Inbirds theheterogametic sex is the female whereas inmammals it is the male.Anincreased percentage of males has been found in the Fi genera-tion in interhybrid crosses among gallinaceous birds. Ghigi (1936)reported onlymales incrosses between domestic fowl and guineafowland guineafowl and peafowl. From color markings the hybridguineafowl x peafowl cross reported by Hanebrink (1973a, b) wasthought to be a female, although no eggs were laid and no autopsywas performed. This hybrid is livingand associates itself with otherpeafowl. According to Cole and Hollander (1950), a cross of a malepigeon with a female dove produces offspring which are all malesand these are sterile when mated to pigeons. When this hybridimated to a dove of the parental species, however, it occasionallyproduces a three-fourths dove. Such offspring are all males ancsterile. Amale dove mated with a female pigeon produces both maleand female offspring of which all the females are barren.DESCRIPTION OF DOMESTICATEDCHICKEN—GUINEAFOWL HYBRIDSChicken-guineafowl hybrids (Figs. 1.2) were hatched from guineaFigure 1.Hybrid of White Leghorn and White Guineafowl.Figure 2. Hybrid ofBuffCochin and White Guineafowl.44Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 30 [1976], Art. 17Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1976Earl L.Hanebrinkeggs under natural barnyard conditions. In this situation two femalewhite guineas were enclosed in a pen with several breeds of domes-ticated chickens. No male guineafowl were included in the enclosure.From a total of30 guineafowl eggs, onlyone hatched; itproduced thewhite hybrid (Fig. 1). The eggs were incubated by a domesticatedduck and one of the female white guineafowl. All the other eggsfrom these two settings either were infertile or at least no develop-ment of embryos occurred to the hatching point.The buff hybrid (Fig. 2) hatched from a total of 12 eggs. Four ofthese eggs were fertile to the point of the eggs being pipped. Twoactually hatched from this setting but one chick died the first day.Both the buff and white hybrids (Figs. 1, 2) were reared with babychicks and are now more than two years old. During the spring of1974 copulation between the female white guineafowl and the twodomesticated roosters was observed several times by David Remagen(pers. commun.) who is the owner of the hybrids. Morphologicmeasurements for the two female white guineafowl were practicallyidentical. It was not known whether the hybrids came from onefemale guineafowl or both, but the father of the pure white hybridhad to be the White Leghorn rooster as there was no feathering onthe tarsus and the color was pure white. The father of the buffhybridhad feathering on the tarsus which is characteristic of the BuffCochin rooster. The hybrid was also buff, even though the femaleguineafowl was white. Neither hybrid shows any visible sexcharacteristics in its behavior, and they fare equally well withchickens and guineas but usually associate with each other. Theyfeed and roost with both chickens andguineafowl but are seldomincluded in a flock of either chickens or guineas in their normalroutine.The hybrid from the female white guineafowl and male WhiteLeghorn is solid white and is generally intermediate (Table I)between the parents in morphologic measurements but actually issmaller in stature than either parent. This hybrid has bright orangelegs whichare guinea-like but weak. The bird is wobbly as it walks.This cross has typical guineafowl stance with the tail elevatedsomewhat like that of the chicken. Waddles are vestigal and the facehas sparce feathering, a characteristic of the guineafowl. There isnohelmet like that of the guineafowl nor is there a comb like that of thedomesticated chicken. There is a small round tubercle near the baseof the upper bill which is characteristic of neither the chicken northe guineafowl.The cross between the male BuffCochin and female white guinea-fowl is mainlylarger (Table I)inmorphologic measurements than theparent birds but is intermediate instature. The color is a general buffwith some feathering on the tarsus whichis characteristic of the maleBuff Cochin. The feathering on the tarsus, however, does notcompare with that of the parent. This hybrid also has a guineafowlstance with its tail elevated like that of the domesticated chicken. Italso has vestigal waddles and does not have the helmet characteristicof guineafowl. There is no comb but there is a slight protuberance atthe base of the upper bill whichboth parents lack. The tips of the tailfeathers are vermiculated and similar in coloring to those of thetypical pearl guineafowl. The genetic origin of this characteristic isnot known. The white guineafowl is amutation from the wildpearlAfrican guineafowl and possibly they still carry some hidden genesfor this characteristic. Acommon coloring fault among BuffCochinsis black feathers in the tail. However, the parent BuffCochin maledid not have this fault, and the hybrid's tail feathers were pearl-guinealike rather than black.SOCIALBEHAVIOR OF THEHYBRIDSEven though the guineafowl-domesticated chicken hybrids werereared with baby chickens they prefer to remain to themselves. Theyboth show no visible sex characteristics and are calm under normalconditions. However, they are extremely nervous when caught andare easily frightened when cornered in contrast to either parent.Their voice is somewhat guinealike although different. They neveruse their voice unless frightened. Peafowl-guineafowl hybridsassociate more withother peafowl than they do withguineafowl. Theguineafowl-domesticated chicken hybrids seem to have nopreference but associate witheach other. These hybrids are similar toguineafowl in their agonistic behavior as they are very hostile towarddomesticated chickens while feeding which is a characteristic ofguineafowl.CONCLUSIONSCrosses between domesticated chickens and guineafowl have beenreported as well as a large number of crosses among other membersof the superfamily Phasianoidea. The cross reported here representsspecies in different families of the superfamily Phasianoidea. Thedomesticated chicken had been placed in the family Phasianidae andthe guineafowl in the family Numididae. Most published accountsmention the hybrids but give little description of the behavior ormorphologic measurements. This report includes descriptions of thebehavior and morphologic characters of such a cross. Though gamebreeders do notadvocate interhybrid crosses, these crosses do occurboth naturally and under artificial conditions. Sarvella (1969)mentions that these crosses can be valuable research tools.Cytological and biochemical (serum protein) studies of intergenericand interfamilial crosses help to advance the understanding of evolu-tionary trends which lead to classification systems. Also, they canmake itpossible to devise techniques for transferring genes from wildbirds to domestic ones. The ease with which gallinaceous birds seemto hybridize suggests a closer look at the classification system.Possibly the number of families in the superfamily Phasianoideashould be reduced as suggested by Yamashina (1952) and Mainardi(1959).ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe writer is most grateful for the cooperation of DavidRemagen inpermitting the hybrids to be studied. Photo-graphic work was done by Dr. Harvey Barton, AssociateProfessor of Zoology, and Dr.James Hutchison, ProfessorofBotany, Arkansas State University.Table I.Comparison of Morphological Characters of Guineafowl-Domesticated Chicken Cross withThose ofParent BirdsWhite Guinea Hybrid White White Leghorn Hybrid Buff Buff CochinCharacters in cm r, * j,Culmen 3.5 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0Tarsus 8.0 8.0 10.0 9.5 12.0Middle Toe 4.3 5.0 5.5 6.2 5.3Middle Toe with Nail 5.0 6.0 6.5 7.5 6.0Bend of Wing (length 12.70 10.16 12.70 15.24 14.00outward frombend.)Total Wing Length 33.02 30.48 35.60 33.02 40.60Arkansas Academy of Science Proceedings, Vol. XXX,1976 4545Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 30 [1976], Art. 17http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol30/iss1/1746 Arkansas Academy of Science Proceedings, Vol. XXX,1976Characteristics and Behavior of Guineaf owland Domesticated Chicken HybridsLITERATURECITEDASMUNDSON, V.S. and F.W. LORENZ. 1957. Hybrids of ring-necked pheasants, turkeys and domesticated fowl. PoultryScience 36: 1323-1334.COLE, L.I.and W.F. HOLLANDER. 1950. Hybrids of pigeons byringed dove. Amer. Naturalist 84:275-308.EDWARDS, G. 1761. An account of a bird supposed to be bredbetween a turkey and pheasant. Trans. Roy. Soc., London 51-pt.2, B:415-417.GHIGI, A. 1900. Diun ibrido fra Numida e Pavone. Monit. Zool.Ital.Anno XI(cited from Taibel).GHIGI, A. 1936. Galline de faraone e tacchini. Ulrico Hoepli,Milano.HALDANE,I.B.S. 1922. Sex ratio and unisexual sterility in hybridanimals. I.Genetics 12:101-109.HANEBRINK, E.L. 1973a. Characteristics and behavior of a pea-fowl-guinea hybrid. Game Bird Breeders, Aviculturists, Zoolo-gists and Conservationists Gazette 22:8-11.HANEBRINK, E.L. 1973b. Taxonomic relationship of hybrid pea-fowl-guineafowl: preliminary study of serum protein. Proc. Ark.Acad. Sci. 27—33-34.HEINROTH, OSKAR and KATHARINAHEINROTH. 1955. Ausdem Leben der Voegel. 2nd ed. Springer- Verlag, Berlin-Goettingen-Heidelberg. 181pp.MAINARDI,DANILO. 1959. Immunological distances among somegallinaceous birds. Nature 184:913-914.MAYBALL,O. 1961. An unusual hybrid. Game Bird Breeders,Aviculturists, Zoologists, and Conservationists Gazette. Nov.,p36.MITSUMOTO, K. and S. NISHIDA. 1958. Trials of production ofthe hybrid between quails and chickens. I.lap. Zootech. Sci29:10.OGOROD1I, II.1935. Hybridization of unrelated birds in Askania-Nova. Bull.AllUnion Acad. Agri.Science (Lenin)1:25.OLSON, M.W. 1960. Turkey-chicken hybrids. I.Heredity 51:69-73.QUINN,J.P., W.H. BURROWS and T.O. BYERLY. 1937. Turkey-chicken hybrids. I.Heredity 28:169-173.SARVELLA,P. 1969. Avian nybrids using wild birds are valuableresearch tools. Game BirdBreeders, Aviculturists, Zoologists,and Conservationists Gazette. Oct.-Nov., p.6.SEREBROVSKY, A.S. 1929. Observations on interspecific hybridsof the fowl.I.Genetics 21:327-340.TAIBEL, A.M. 1955. Su taluni ibridi o rari o nuovi alia scienzaibridologica. Rivistra Italiana diOrnithologia XXV:1-27.WARREN, D.C. and H.M. SCOTT. 1935. An attempt to produceturkey-chicken hybrids. I.Heredity 26:105-107.WILCOX,F.H. and O.E. CLARK. 1961. Chicken-quail hybrids. JHeredity 52:167-170.YAMASHINA, Y. 1952. La Kromosomo 14:536 (cited fromMainardi).46Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 30 [1976], Art. 17Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1976

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Characteristics and Behavior of Guineafowl and Domesticated Chicken Hybrids

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