Geographic variation in the G matrices of wild populations of the barn swallow

In this paper, we present an analysis of genetic variation in three wild populations of the barn swallow, Hirundo rustica. We estimated the P, E, and G matrices for six linear morphological measurements and tested for variation among populations using the Flury hierarchical method and the jackknife followed by MANOVA method. Because of nonpositive-definite matrices, we had to employ 'bending' to analyse the G and E matrices with the Flury method. Both statistical methods agree in finding that the P and G matrices are significantly different but comparison between the analysis of the P matrices and pairwise analyses of the P, E, and G matrices suggests caution in interpreting the Flury results concerning differences in matrix structure. The significant variation among the populations in the G matrices appears to be due in large measure to the most geographically distant population.