Red
and yellow mirror tails and the 'Lebanon Bronze Stencil Factor' at
Joe Quinn
As intensive as in the
Lebanon Pigeon, the red color and the contrast to the whitish tail
band are only shown in a few other breeds, e.g. in Rshew
Mirror-Tailed Tumblers and in Volga Tumblers.

Fig. 1: Red mirror-tailed
Lebanon Pigeon and red mirror-tailed Volga Tumbler
Many breeders are not
demanding, weak expressions occurs in dominant red pigeons even
without breeding activities and even such individuals are shown and
evaluated as mirror tails.
Fig. 2: Dominant red German
Beauty Homer and red Rshew Startail-Tumbler (Source: Sell, Pigeon
Genetics 2012, p. 217)
In order to achieve a
simultaneous intensive red and high-contrast to the white tail band,
further factors are necessary. Joe Quinn suspected a recessive
factor he called 'Lebanon Bronze Stencil'. A special factor and a
special naming. The factor is supposed to act as an 'enabler' and
allow mirror wings and tails in the smooth spread areas to appear on
dominant red pigeons. As a side effect, it is believed that the
factor when transferred to black colored pigeons, such as dark check
blue, expresses in a ‘tinge of bronze’ (p. 79). Trying to prove the
existence of a largely invisible hereditary factor is not
unexpectedly difficult.
Paul Gibson concluded from
his experiments in which Dominant Red and Brander Bronze produced
similar appearances as well as Ash Red T-pattern Gimpel and Rollers,
even without mating with mirror-tails (p. 90), that a factor Lebanon
bronze does not exist. Other bronze factors could take over the
part.

Fig. 3: Dominant red Brander
Bronze (Source: L.P. Gibson 1995, p. 91)
Methodologically and
logically untenable. Even if the phenotype is very similar, that
does not prove the claim that the factor does not exist. A parable:
From the fact that we get from dilute blue-check cock x black hen
also some dun, a color similar to brown, one cannot (and should not)
conclude that the gene 'brown' does not exist. What is meant by
Quinn is the factor that leads to a change from simple dominant red
to Lebanon phenotype at the Lebanon Pigeon. Some seem to confuse the
question of which factors red Lebanon mirror tails in reality have
with the question of whether combinations of other genetic factors
can produce a similar coloration. It is also not about the question
of whether the naming of the supposed trait as ‘Lebanon Bronze
Stencil’ was a good choice.
There are more reports on
the genetics of the trait than most are aware of. Own already
documented tests resulted e.g. in the F2 from Volga
Tumbler x blue check without bronze background in 8 females with
black base color and some of them with kite-like bronze tones. Thus
there was a bronze factor in the tested Volga Tumbler that could be
transferred to black color. None of the 23 dominant reds of the F2
showed a white tail band, the tails were ashen and not red.

Fig. 4: Result of mating
Volga Tumbler cock and Blue-check hen without any broze background
(Source: Sell, Pigeon Genetics 2012, S. 217)
With Gimpel bronze was also
already experimented. Gibson used ash red white wings, in the own
tests a hen with black base color was used.


Fig. 5: young from the F1
(upper line) und F2 from Volga-Tumbler cock and
pale-blue-check hen with Gimpel-Pigeon background (Source: Sell,
Genetik der Taubenfärbungen 2015)
Some of the F2
from Volga cock x Pale Blue check with Gimpel background showed
intense red tails and a distinct white tail band. A sign that the
Volga Tumbler shares parts of Gimpel-Pigeon traits? From both tests
together the opposite follows. It is the effect of the pale blue
check hen with Gimpel background in the second mating. The first
cross shows that the red Volga Tumbler can have the correct coloring
even without the factors of Gimpel Pigeons.
However, breeders interested
in genetics should be careful with own crosses. By crossing with
Gimpel and bringing the offspring into the line, the gene pool of
the breed will change. In a few years, some breeders may then be
able to report that they have discovered in genetic tests, or others
in molecular genetic investigations, that there are Gimpel Pigeon
factors in their mirror tails. Sometimes traits are found that are
present by chance but not really required.
Literature:
Gibson, Lester Paul,
Genetics of Pigeons Columba livia (Gmelin), 1993
Quinn, Joe, The Pigeon
Breeders Notebook. An Introduction to Pigeon Science, 1971.
Sell, Axel, Genetik der Taubenfärbungen, Achim
2015.
Sell, Axel, Pigeon Genetics.
Applied Genetics in the Domestic Pigeon, Achim 2012.
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