by the wings flying above. An egg that is going to hatch a gold dragon is notable: It is gold-colored and larger than other eggs. A gold dragon will always Impress a heterosexual female and are believed by most Weyrfolk to prefer young women who were not raised in the Weyr. Bronze dragons are the largest males (35–45 feet or meters long), although they are generally significantly smaller than the queens. Bronzes account for about five percent of all dragons. They are almost always the ones to mate with queens, as the smaller colors generally lack the stamina to chase and catch the gold dragons when they rise to mate. Due to the 5-1 bronze/gold ratio and the infrequency of gold mating flights, they often mate with greens (the losers of a gold flight almost always seek a green for their needs), but their size often puts them at a disadvantage in chasing the agile, smaller females. The senior bronze of a Weyr is determined through which bronze wins the mating flight of the senior gold. In canon Pern, the rider of a bronze dragon is always a heterosexual male. Brown dragons are the next largest color (30–40 feet or meters long). About fifteen percent of all dragons are brown. They may occasionally mate with queens, although this is rare, and becomes even more rare as the dragons increase in size; by Ramoth's time in the Ninth Pass it is unheard of. All brown riders in the Pern novels are men; most are heterosexual, but bisexual or "masculine" homosexual brown riders are not rare. Blue dragons are the smallest males (24–30 feet or meters long) and make up about a third (thirty percent) of all dragons on Pern. They are nearly as agile as greens, but unlike the greens, they often have enough stamina to last for an entire Threadfall. They mate only with greens, as they are simply too small to keep up with a massive queen over a long mating flight. There are few prominent blue dragons or blue riders in the books. Some assume the position of teaching the new riders after their Impression. Canon blue riders are typically homosexual or bisexual, though some are heterosexual. In interviews, McCaffrey stated that homosexual women may be able to Impress a blue dragon. In the later books written with her son, Todd McCaffrey, blue Tazith is ridden by Xhinna,