220 NATURAL HISTORY. 



.NOTE ON THE CONDUCT OF A TAME PIGEON. 



By E. H. Aitken. 



The curious example of conjugal infidelity among pigeons given by Mr. Hart 

 in the last number of the Journal reminded me of two incidents, illustrating the 

 characters of the same birds as husbands and fathers, 'which may interest members. 

 By way of parenthetical preface, I will say that, if the Journal of the Bombay 

 Natural History Society awakens a livelier interest in the behaviour of animals 

 as intelligent beings, it will do a valuable work. 



In 1879 a baby pigeon, not more than a week old, in one of the nests in my 

 pigeon-house, was left an orphan by the sudden death of its mother. It was toe- 

 young to be fed by hand and I supposed it must die, but I was mistaken. The 

 bereaved father, instead of giving himself up to sorrow, at once took sole charge 

 of his helpless offspring and reared it successfully. He had not sense to 

 make any change in his habits. Among pigeons the female sits alone on the 

 nest, except for three or four hours in the middle of the day, when she is relieved 

 by the male ; so this bird went in every day, about 10 or 11 o'clock, and kept the 

 nest warm till 2 ; but all night he slept as he had been accustomed to do, in another 

 chamber, leaving his naked little child exposed to the cold of a February night. 

 It survived however and was doubtless all the hardier for its Spartan nurture. 



Whether this parent's conduct is attributed to intelligence or stupidity will 



depend upon the direction in which we have accustomed our feelings to run ; but 



there can be no question about the following case. In my flock there was one old 



male bird who w5s quite a character in the community. He was a fat 



easy-going, good natured bird, but pampered and self-indulgent to an uncommon 



degree. It was a favourite sport of mine to fit him into the mouth of a stone 



jar, like a cork, only his head and shoulders out, and in that position to give him 



grain, which he would eat with the most composed enjoyment. His wife was 



a blue rock with all the strong instincts and affections of a wild bird. Finding 



her always willing to take more than her share of the family cares he shirked 



his and, during the hot season, gave up taking his turn on the nest altogether 



leaving her to sit day and night, which she did, excepting a very short interval 



which she allowed herself for food. When the cold season came round, he found 



his opportunity to repay her by taking all the night work duty on himself. He 



actually turned her off the eggs and slept in the nest himself, while she roosted 



at the entrance and kept out the cold air I 



E. H. A. 



NOTE ON DANAIS DORIPPUS. 



By Mr. A. T. H. Newnham, S. C, 10th N. I. 



Mr. Aitken mentions in his paper on Bombay Butterflies that he has never 



met with this variety, but in the last month I have seen here, in Cutch, two 



specimens, one of which I added to my collection. Besides these, another 



collector obtained two more at Mandvie, and said he had seen others which 



escaped him. Also the same collector had caught the variety known as 



D. alcippoides, but haviDg the lower half of the hind wings pale lavender 



seaintd of white. 



A. T. H. N. 



