■5t)t) Breeding of Turtle Do re Hi/hri'Js, etc. 



plumago were brought to me, and, as they appeared very 

 tamo I purchased them. They had l>een kept, and wen^ in a 

 rather small wire-fronted bo v, consequently were not in the 

 best of plumage, but could be ear-ily handled. 



My first thought was to give them more room, so 1 

 took the box into my wild planted aviary and quietly opened 

 the door, but no sooner did they find themselves out of the box 

 than they flew violently about in all directions, banging fhem- 

 selves l>adly; however, I left them, hoping they would settle 

 down, but I found that whenever I appea^'ed on the scene they 

 bc!haved very madly and further damaged themselves, so I 

 transferred them to a small covered aviary some 6 feet square. 

 Whenever I fed them they were almost as had, so, knowing 

 a friend that wanted a pair, 1 transferred them to his rare. 

 My friend put these Doves into box cap:e^, about 2ft. fiin. 

 X 1ft. Gin., and these appeared to suit them, for they soon 

 settled down and became fairly tame, though very shy of 

 strangers. 



These two Turtles turned out to be males, and in the 

 spring one mated to a hen Common Barliary Dove, and later 

 the other cock to a hen White Java Dove. The I'osult from 

 the Turtle and Barbary mating was four youngsters fully 

 reared, and, from the Turtle and hen White .Tava Dove, one 

 youngster fully reared. The four young from the first-named 

 were practically all alike, resembling in colour (perhaps 

 greyer) the male parent but of a more even tone, the neck ring 

 being more like the Rarbary but wider. The one youngster 

 from the Turtle and White Java Dove does not vary much 

 from the other four hybrids except, that all the upper feathers 

 are much browner and more like the brown bordering of the 

 scapular feathers of the male parent, showing that the potency 

 of the male is greater with the white crossing than with the 

 common Barbary. All these young partake of the wild nature 

 of the male pai^ent and are all males. From the foregoing it 

 will be seen that the net result for 1912 was five young fully 

 reared. During the following winter my friend exchanged one 

 of the cock Turtles for a hen of the same species, as hewi-<hed 

 to try his hand at breeding these birds. 



I acquired the four young hybrids of the Turtle and 

 Barbary cross, and, during the last spring mated one of them to 



