4 Hybrid Pcn'cs, llic. 



Anotlicr Sparrow tliat came into my possessicjn rallier 

 l.'ite in tlie anlumn was tlic I)ent4iiella Sparrow (Passer 

 motitonsis). These l)irds were sold to me. in (inite g'ood faith, 

 as Mahali Weavers (f'loccpasscr Dialiali), biU- as I had kept a 

 cock MahaH for the last two years, I at once knew that they had 

 been misnamed. The s^'eneral colour of the male above is pale 

 cinnamon; upper tail-coverts ashy brown; median wini^-coverts 

 blackish, tipped with white, forming" a wing"-bar; crown of head 

 and hind neck pale pearly grey; over the lores a small white 

 spot, continued in a broad eyebrow-streak of ])ale cinnamon, 

 widening out on the sides of the neck; lores and lower margin 

 of eyelid black, continued in a line along the upper part of the 

 ear-coverts, which are pale ashy; the cheeks pure while, forming 

 a streak which widens out on each side of the neck; throat and 

 foreneck black; chest and underparts white; flanks and sides 

 brownish. Female altogether duller. 



With the exception of a cock I bought about ten years 

 ago, with a number of mixed S. African birds, these are the 

 first specimens I have seen, so I cannot think that they are 

 cften imported. If I can get them to survive the winter, I shall 

 hope to breed them this season, and so win another F.B.C. 

 medal. 







Hybrid Doves, etc. 



By E. Sprankling. 



In Bird Notes for TQ13 I gave a few notes on the breeding 

 of Turtle Dove hybrids, etc., a brief summary of same being 

 that in the spring" of 1913 a first cross hybrid male dove (the 

 produce of a c? Turtle and a 9 Barbary Dove) mated with a 

 Common Barbary hen and bred and reared three young, two 

 being fawn-coloured like an ordinary Barbary Dove, and one 

 grey (a male) like the ground colour of the parent hybrid 

 father, all with a slight distinguishing mark in the beak. This 

 mark, which enabled me to distinguish my hybrid faw^ns from 

 piu^e Barbary Doves, was the red colour of the fleshy base or 

 gape of beak. They also showed a slight fullness later, in the 

 width of the neck rings, especially at the sides, but the rings 

 met at the back of neck just as in the Common Barbary. 



