Tolbunt means something like jazzy. It is usually mottled over laced pattern but any plumage pattern can be mottled, (autosomal) barred and spangled also work well.

For a while I have been trying to marshal my thoughts on the effect of the mottled gene on mottling and what is actually involved in the millefleur pattern.

The mottle gene, symbol: mo when homozygous, mo/mo stops the growing feather producing pigment for a while, which causes the white tip.  Then the effect of the gene switches off and pigment is produced again and because melanin  (black pigment) can be formed faster than phaeomelanin (gold/red pigment) so black is laid down first and in a particularly concentrated way which is why the initial band behind the white mottle is matt black, and doesn’t develop a green sheen.  After the black the feather colour is laid down in the normal way.

In black mottled I’d agree. It also appears to be the case in Speckled Sussex and Spangled Game . I see a lot of mottled laced and the mottle gene has little impact on the pattern  Unexpectedly a lot of feathers don’t develop matt black and the centre of the feather behind the white tip comes in almost pure gold with no matt black band ; even though it is a melanised bird..  It looks as if the effect of pattern gene in this case is overriding the usual effect of mottling. Pg organises the colour so effectively there is almost no melanin in the gold area that separates out.

I had always supposed millefleur to be spangled plus mottled, but looking at mottled spangled it probably isn’t. The birds I breed that come closest to millefleur initially  look like barred or black tailed buffs (Db through some probably have Co too) with no evidence of Ml. As they grow they develop little black teardrops which are quite unlike normal spangled.

Spangled Tolbunts

In my flock which is mainly Eb I get to see a lot of variations of mottling.  On a normal spangled (Pg, Ml, Db) pattern the mottles form normally, get a matt band and the feather follows up with a big teardrop black spot and then gold.

Tolbunts a spin-off

Some of my early millefleur have been various forms of Tolbunt.

Barred Tolbunt Wyandotte hen