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



remnants of only 2 to 6 spots. 28 This is not saying that the stock-dove arose from 

 the rock-dove; more probably the two arose from the same ancestor. 29 



Salvadori (page 263) erroneously states that the "black markings" on the wings 

 of the young are "scarcely noticeable." In some young that I have reared the spots 

 are rather more marked than in the adults. 



Columba livia may be thus described: 30 The head is dark gray, weakening slightly on 

 the occiput, which is tinged obscurely with brownish. The neck is metallic green, strongest 

 on the sides, weakening perceptibly in the mid-front and in the mid-back region. The metallic- 

 green feathers are widely split at the tips, especially on the sides, where the barbs look as if 

 broken off at the tips. The green passes into purple on the lower part of the neck, or, better, 

 on the upper breast. 



The feathers on the side of the neck are green only at their tips, for a length of about 

 7 mm. ; then they are black, this color weakening and passing into gray at about the middle 

 of the shaft. The black is strongest in the feathers corresponding to the feathers in the 

 spot of the turtle-dove (Turtur orientalis). The split of the feathers extends through the 

 green part of the feather-tips. 



The upper back, the scapulars, and the wings are paler gray, with a slight tinge of 

 broivnish; this brownish being most decided on the upper webs of the long coverts. 



The rump is white, sharply demarked posteriorly, but blends into gray anteriorly. The 

 upper tail-coverts are dark gray, somewhat lighter than the head. The white of the 

 rump runs forward on each side of the body clear up to wing-bones, so that the upper half 

 of the body, as seen in profile, is white. 



The quills and primary coverts are gray, the quills being tipped with blackish. The 

 lower parts are darker gray than is the back ; darker on the breast and under tail-coverts. 

 The abdomen is nearly the same. The under wing-coverts are white, becoming gray at 

 the edge of the wing. 



The tail is dark gray, with a broad apical black band, and with the outer i eathers white 

 on the outer web. The iris is orange-red, becoming slightly lighter in color at the inner 

 edge. The bill is black, with the cere white in its basal half. The legs are red. 



I notice in rock-pigeon hybrids obtained by crossing a chequered male (Columba 

 affinis, from Innishbofen, Ireland) with a two-barred female (C. livia, from Dover, 

 England) that the bars in the young are pale, especially the anterior bar. The same 

 is true of these bars in the young (first feathers) of domestic pigeons. In the young 

 of pure rock-pigeons, however, the bars are both strong black. Besides, the gray 

 is pure in the pure-bred; that is to say, it is about the same as in the adults, while in 

 these impure young rocks there is a decided brownish tinge in the gray. I infer 

 that weak or pale bars in the first feathers are due to degeneration, the degeneration 

 showing itself first in the juvenile feathers. It is certainly interesting that the pure- 

 bred rocks strike so directly into the adult color. 31 



28 The wing-bars of this species have been fully considered in Chapter II (see pis. 9-13) ; the neck-mark is figured 

 and described in text -fig. 4, Vol. II. — Ed. 



29 Columba eversmanni closely resembles C. anas, but is smaller and has a whitish-gray or pure-white rump. (The 

 author had several of these birds in his aviary during 1909-10; but the single illustration prepared — a photograph of 

 four birds, with feathers in disorder from a voyage from India — is without a legend, and 1 find no further description 

 or reference to the species. — Ed.) 



30 I have here enlarged upon Salvadori's description (page 255), so as to give a more adequate account of those 

 characters which seem important in these studies. (The wing-bars of C. livia and the chequers of C. affinis have been 

 already described in Chapters II and IV. See plates 1 and 2. — Ed.) For the birds here described (2-barred rocks) I am 

 indebted to Mr. Cyril Allies, of Innishbofen, county of Galway, Ireland. I have examined also individuals from Dover, 

 England, and from the Caves of Cromarty, North of Scotland. 



31 None of the species of the subfamily Macropygiime has been seen, studied, or described by the author. It is 

 noted, however, thai Salvadori's description (page 364) of Marropyoia rufa makes it clear that the dark center and 

 the pale tip are present there. (The single known species (E. migratnrius) of the subfamily Eetopistinse has been 

 described in Chapter II, text-figs. 5 to 7; adults and hybrid in color, plates 28 to 30, Vol. II. — Ed.) 



