C-banding regions were detected in almost all macrochromosomes of chicken. However the variability of C-banding in mitotic cells existed among the embryos, among cells from the same embryos, and between homologues. These variable results were thought to be the consequence of differing amounts of DNA denat uration and extraction within a given C-banding region. Constant C-bands were located at telomeric region of the Z chromosome and the whole regions of W chromosome. Most of C-bands were located at centromeric and telomeric in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th chromosomes. In addition, the relative amounts of heterochromatin in each macrochromosome were estimated at 12∼19%. These amounts were similar to the contents of highly repetitive DNA in chicken genome.