One of the most popular birds, whether in a cage or an aviary, throughout the world is the canary. These charming little birds are now available in a wide variety of color and shape variations. Canaries are ideal both as pets and for serious breeders or exhibitors.

I have a perplexing question for any informed canary enthusiast.

Pairing a recessive white hen that has red eyes with a recessive white male that has red eyes will be exhibited in an offspring which of the following traits?

* (a) 100% recessive white the RED eye color

* (b) 100% recessive white with normal eyes

* (c) 50% recessive white with RED eyes and 50% recessive white with normal eyes

* (All previous

The correct answer is (d) All of the above.

Here are the facts:

Eyes that are red are caused by two different factors.

1. SATINET, a recessive sex-attachment factor and

2. INO, a recessive somatic factor

(a.) To get a 100% recessive red-eyed white, you would pair a red-eyed white recessive male with a red-eyed white recessive hen. Both members of the pair are SATINET or both INO.

(b) To obtain a recessive white with normal (black) eyes, mate a recessive white with red eyes (INO) male with a recessive white with red eyes (SATINET) hen. The male has the trait of a somatic chromosome while the female has the trait of a recessive SEX LINK chromosome. They are not homologous and are not on the same chromosome, so they cannot exhibit red eyes. They will have BLACK EYES.

100% of the offspring will carry the INO factor. Males will also divide into SATINET.

(c) If you pair a recessive white SATINET male with a recessive white INO hen, since SATINET is a recessive mating trait and INO is a somatic trait, all females will inherit the SATINET trait on the X chromosome. Females will exhibit eyes red and the males will be satinet carriers with black eyes. 100% of the offspring (males and females) will carry the INO trait.