Ornithological and Other Oddities 



quatus) was common on the mainland opposite 

 Mombasa Island, but I did not notice anything 

 particularly interesting in its habits. It is a large 

 dove, much resembling the familiar domestic 

 species, but darker in colour, with a fine pinkish 

 tinge on the neck and breast. The late General 

 Matthews, who most kindly interested himself in 

 my pursuits, gave me a large number of these 

 birds in Zanzibar, some of which I presented on 

 his behalf to the London Zoo, while others I gave 

 to St. James's Park. These latter, about a dozen 

 in number, were confined in one of the compart- 

 ments in an aviary on the island back of the 

 keeper's house, which is used for the occasional 

 accommodation of birds. Here they were kept 

 till in perfect condition, when they were liberated. 

 They stayed about for some months, and then 

 disappeared, and, what is indeed curious, none 

 were ever shot and reported as " rare occur- 

 rences." During their captivity, one of them 

 produced two curious hybrids with a white-and- 

 black cock domestic pigeon ; these were blue in 

 colour, with no distinct markings, but a pale band 

 at the end of the tail, in which colour-points they 

 resembled the dove parent. I doubt if any one 

 could have divined their origin at first sight. 



To return to the foreign cage-birds in their 

 own haunts. I did not see much more in this 



way in Africa, so that it was not until I took up 



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