ABSTRACT
In agreement with the foregoing avians, the adult game bird Alectoris rufa rufa the red-legged partridge, a phasianid, elaborates one major and one minor hemoglobin. Electrophoretic analyses performed on the hemoglobins from the erythrocyte lysates obtained from 46 species of avians representing 13 Orders demonstrated that avian red cells possess one, two or three hemoglobins. The normal habitat, locomotor adaptation and feeding habits also did not indicate any correlation with the occurrence of single or multiple hemoglobins in a particular species. Hemoglobin synthesis in the members of the Class Aves is considered heterogeneous. Time-specific changes in the acquisition of different hemoglobins during embryonic and later development vary among species of birds. The change from the embryonic to adult type hemoglobin in the six to seven-day-old chick appears to correspond to the change in the morphology of the erythrocytes and the locus of their production.
