Take a look at this pic:
"A" on the left is a true lilac-chest from an experienced breeder of Gouldians. "B" in the centre of the pic is the subject of this post, being an image from about 1.5 years ago. "B" on the right is the same bird but taken recently (I removed his blue leg ring). Yes he is going through moult so he looks a bit haggard, but I think you can see his chest colour has deepened slightly over time. Contrasting the chest colour to that of the white on his neck (which really does look white) we can see that his chest colour is off-white and is close to the lilac of "A" on the left.
So, I was thinking "B" might actually be a quite pale lilac-chested Gould .... until I dug a bit deeper by viewing his offspring. If you take a look at this link you can see this "B" Gould, and at the bottom of the page you can see all his offspring.
Gouldian cock "B" and his offspring
I paired him with a white-chested hen, so genetically speaking his offspring should be either all lilac-chested, or a mix of lilac-chested and white-chested (assuming he is split-for-white). Yet they all appear to have white chests, although the two cock offspring are a little off-white. It is also possible that, so far, he has produced only white-chested offspring (a statistical anomaly, so to speak).
In the end I'm quite confused. Do I have an "dirty-white" Gould, or a lilac Gould with a particularly pale version of lilac (which on hen offspring might look white)?
Any and all comments are most welcome.
Cheers,
Ross