Water Cycle Definition - The water cycle is a series of processes that a body of water goes through as it transitions between the earth's oceans, the...
Merle /mer-le/ [2 sylls.] as a boys' name (also used as girls' name Merle) is pronounced merl. It is of French origin, and the meaning of Merle is blackbird. Country-western singer Merle Haggard has made this name familiar.
Merle is interesting because all normal merles are heterozygous (Mm). A homozygous merle is actually a double merle (see below). The merle gene dilutes random sections of the coat to a lighter colour (usually grey in a black-pigmented dog), leaving patches of the original colour remaining. The patches can be any size and can be located anywhere on the dog, unlike the patches on a piebald dog (which are generally confined to the body and head).