THE TURTLE-DOVE PATTERN IN THE PHYLOGENY OF PIGEONS. 69 



Newman figures the painted dove (Homopelia picturatus), commonly called the 

 Mauritian turtle-dove, and proposes to call it the "Madagascar turtle-dove," as Mada- 

 gascar is much the larger island and is perhaps the only true habitat of the species. 



I have a number of the Senegal turtle-doves (Stigmatopelia senegalensis) , and 

 find that some of them have the whole front of the neck with bifurcated feathers; 

 but one or two individuals show a narrow median front line, 14 in which the feathers 

 are neither marked with black nor bifurcated. The Madagascar birds would be 

 the more primitive type, while the Senegal birds would be the later form. These 

 birds fly without noise, like young doves generally. 



The dark centers — already described as an early or primitive avian character — 

 most nearly fill out the feather and are least pointed in the Japanese turtle-dove 

 {Turtur orientalis) (see pis. 1 and 2, Vol. II; and text-fig. 3, Vol. I). The position 

 and extent of the black in the wing-coverts is best seen in a series of the separately 

 drawn feathers (pi. 20). The black center blends with the reddish edge or feather 

 tip; i.e., at the boundary of the black we see an intermixture of red, with no sharp 

 separation. The lowermost coverts of the wing show the red replaced by gray. 



This black center can be regarded as consisting of an upper (inner) half and a 

 lower (outer) half. On the upper tertials the upper half may fill more of the surface 

 than the lower half; in other words, there is an asymmetry such as we see in the 

 black spots of Columba. 



In the young the centers of the coverts, scapulars, tertials, etc., are sometimes 

 blackish, sometimes dark brown, as in some of the tertials. In the adult the spot 

 is clearer black and more decidedly angular at the tip. 15 



In the European turtle-dove {Turtur turtur) the black center is more reduced 

 and more pointed. This is made clear by a comparison of corresponding wing- 

 coverts in the two forms (pis. 20 and 21). The drawings of the entire wings {turtur, 

 pi. 22, fig. 1; orientalis, text-fig. 3) show the same distinction, and that of turtur 

 further shows that it is the anterior part of the wing that has suffered relatively 

 greatest reduction of the black. 



The pale tips and lateral edges are characters of much interest in the young of 

 turtle-doves. Old types reach adult conditions in their first feathers; e.g., the turtle- 

 dove gets its characteristic light edges in the juvenal plumage. 16 



The first young Japanese turtle-dove that I examined seemed to have its entire 

 adult pattern in the first feathers. I have now seen other young as well as many 

 young European turtles, and I find that it is necessary to distinguish in the first 

 feathers the tips and the lateral edges. The tips (apical edges) in Japanese turtles 

 have a decidedly paler color than the lateral edge, the lateral edge being here more 

 nearly the equivalent of its adult color. This distinction is particularly evident in 

 the European turtle, which is much lighter in color than the Japanese. I find, 

 however, that the distinction also holds, though in a lesser degree, in orientalis. In 

 this species the difference can not be seen on the scapulars, upper long coverts, and 



"It will later be seen, in the geopelias and other forms, that this midfront line and the parts immediately adjoin- 

 ing it are points that differentiate themselves from the rest of the body plumage. 



15 In the young a barred effect on the wing and scapulars is produced, owing to the fact that the creseentic rufous 

 edges of adjacent feathers match so well (reminding of Geopelia humeralis). These rufous bars of course alternate 

 with dark bars, which are broader than the reddish or fulvous bars. This is a very simple type of barring, and pos- 

 sibly the starting-point for bars repeated from the tip towards the base, centiipetally or basipetally. 



"The blue-jay gets the adult pattern in its first feathers, and even the head-crest is there but little less developed 

 in the young than in the old. 



