PLUMAGE
BECAUSE the Lord Howe swamphen exhibited white plumage, at least in adults, it was considered by several authorities to represent an aberration of an existing species.
Aberrant white feathering is a rather common phenomenon in wild birds, but knowledge of colour aberrations and inheritance was poorly known until recently among ornithologists. For example, the term “albino” was, and still is, widely used for many different colour aberrations. True albino is far less common than was previously
