Understanding
almond (sprinkle,
Deroy)
in
three steps
by Frank Mosca
Step 1:
Almond
is a dominant, sex-linked, depigmenting mutation. A mutation is a change
from the wild-type condition of the pigeon, (Columba livia) which may
be passed on to offspring. Almond causes other changes as well as
the depigmentation and it has many alleles (alternatives). We're not
going to worry about those for now. The only other thing we’re going to worry about
here is that almond youngsters are born short-downed.
They look almost naked in the nest.
The fact that almond is a
depigmenting mutation means that it cuts the amount of pigment (coloring
material) put into the feathers of the growing bird. It does this so well
that a bird, which would normally feather out as a blue bar instead tends to be almost whitish.
As a bird ages, the
mutation appears to turn itself off or to change back to the wild-type condition
in certain areas. In those areas, the pigment production turns back on again
and the new feathers produced in that area are colored normally. This colored
feathers in these areas of turned-on-again pigment production are known as the
“break”. As the bird ages, more and more sections are turned on to pigment
production so old almonds may occasionally look to be normal-colored birds
without the almond factor.
STEP
2:
One of the biggest
sources of confusion about almond is the usage of the word. There is both the
pigeon jargon meaning and the genetics meaning. Much of the anger expended in
suggested standard changes is merely the result of the first person using one
definition and the second person using another.
If used in its genetics sense, almond refers to Step-1 above. In that case,
almond is merely one of many known mutations in the common pigeon. It is a
mutation that can be added to any bird of any breed. It makes no difference. Almond can be attached to it.
Whether or not almond would actually be an esthetic addition to that breed is not
considered. For example: you could add almond to white Swiss Mondains, but why would you
want to?
In pigeon jargon, at least as used in English speaking countries, almond
refers to almond’s phenotype (the way it appears visually to us) in combination with specific other mutations in a
particular breed milieu, that of the English Shortface Tumbler (ESF). This is
due to historical accident and the fact that breeders of these birds named the
color itself. If used in that manner, it refers to a pigeon which also
carries the mutations: T-pattern check,
heterozygous recessive red, kite bronze, dirty, etc., as well as almond . There may be other
factors present as well, but that’s what pigeon jargon refers to as “almond.”
By no means is this the only way almond is found in ancient breeds.
Nor is it the only way that breeders have found almond beautiful. The
Danish Stippers, the Italian Magnani Modenas, the Oriental Rollers, etc., are
all breeds in which almond has been known for centuries. They are also breeds
that allow other expressions of almond than are found in the ESF. Many of
these expressions, while vastly different, are as beautiful as those found in
the ESF.
Step
3:
Almond may be added to any of the pigeon’s base pigments. These pigments are
brown, wild-type (blue-black), and red. Thus: you can have a brown bar almond, a
blue bar almond, or an ash-red bar almond. Similarly, you may have a blue check
almond, an ash-red T-pattern almond, or brown barless almond. Almond is hidden
by some factors, but also interacts with many others and still shows itself.
One factor that prevents almond from showing
itself is recessive white. Since recessive white totally inhibits
pigment formation, there is no way for the almond to express itself on such a
bird. A recessive white almond will simply look white –
it will however be born with short down. - (As will dilute whites and a few
other factored whites, so don't jump to the conclusion that you have almond in
your white family just because you saw a short-downed bird -- though you
may have.) Young bred from such an almond white paired to a
bird not carrying recessive white bird will exhibit the almond expression. These
young
will also follow the rules for sex-linkage as far as almond.
Recessive red, too, may hide many things such as spread,
pattern and color. However, it only partially covers almond. Recessive red
almonds in the blue series are easily distinguishable. We call them Deroys.
The recessive red color is washed down a few tones and flecking in a deeper
red occurs as the bird ages. You can also have recessive red almonds in the
ash-red series, or recessive red almonds in the brown series. So far as I’m
aware, there are no specific fancier terms for these colors.
Almond
also may interact with spread. A spread almond in the blue series is a
gray-white bird with black flecking appearing as the bird ages. Notice the
color of the flecks? In this case, they’re black because the bird under that
almond overcoat is actually a black bird. Such a bird, usually is fairly
white with flecking of black all over it -- it's "sprinkled" as if with
pepper, hence the name in English and German and a few other languages. If
such a bird were a spread brown almond,
the flecking would be brown.
Almond’s expression then, i.e., what it
looks like on the bird, is dependent
on what else is in the bird. You can add other factors as well and get indigo
sprinkles. You may add reduced and get a reduced almond. So
almond's expression need not be limited to "classic" almond only. It can
be almost anything you want, so long as you find it attractive and so long as
your club is willing to standardize the expression that you prefer.
To
recapitulate:
Step
1: Almond is a sex-linked depigmenting mutation.
Step 2: Pigeon breeders
use the word almond in two ways: genetics meaning and fanciers’ meaning.
Step
3: Almond can be added to any bird or breed. Its expression in that bird or
breed is determined by other factors present there also.
