THE TURTLE-DOVE PATTERN IN OTHER ORDERS OF BIRDS. 125 



the center being undivided on the upper (inner) and covered web. On the lower 

 (outer) web, the bars of the basal half fuse more or less completely in the lower four 

 or five feathers. 



Examining the tertials and secondaries, we find the bars completely separate 

 on the uppermost feather, but from here onward we see the division of bars gradually 

 reduced, the bars coalescing, first at the shaft, and then gradually, as we descend 

 the series, the bars are lost more and more in an increasing dark center. Since the 

 upper part is most modified, we must read the series from below upward — from 

 dark center to bars. 



Only one of the primaries — -the uppermost — has a completed bar. The light 

 area diminishes downward, and the lower (outer) primaries are whole color with a 

 small light tip. 



In a juvenal female flicker, examined a few days before flying, the spotted 

 feathers run clear up to the black crescent and on the side up to the middle of 

 the crescent. The spots are broader and more pointed distally (less rounded) 

 than in the adult male. According to Mr. Burns, 21 "the pattern of coloration of 

 the fully fledged young is very nearly the same as the adults, but the spots and 

 bars are usually much broader, giving a coarser and darker effect." I may add 

 that not only are the bars broader, but they are less deeply outlined; i.e., they 

 frequently fuse with one another in the middle portion, the light interval being less 

 deeply extended. 



"The white-edged black feather" is regarded by Mr. Burns as "its present 

 highest stage of color-pattern development." 22 (page 72). 



In this same juvenal female I note that the "malar stripe" is dark gray in color, 

 and plainly narrower than in three males where the stripe is black. Dr. Allen, 23 

 who has carefully described the color variation of these birds, thinks that the malar 

 stripe is a character of little service as an index to ancestral relationship. I think, 

 however, that this is a character of deep significance, and one that should be studied 

 on hybrids 24 of known origin — i.e., from birds bred in confinement. 



One may grant that this stripe, as it is described by Allen in two species of 

 Colaptes, presents a situation of much seeming confusion: 



(1) In C. auratus the stripe is present in both sexes in the first plumage (weaker 

 in the female), but is absent in the adult female. 



(2) In C. cafer-mexicanoides the stripe is absent in the female in the first plumage, 

 but present in the adults of both sexes. 



With the facts obtained from the neck-marks of ring-doves (Streptopelia) as a 

 guide (Chapter V), let us assume that No. 2 is the earlier form, and that stripe is 

 absent in the ancestral form. In the present form, then, stripe has been acquired 

 and has already begun to appear in the first plumage of the male, but not in the 

 female, which remains nearer the ancestor. 



21 F. L. Burns, A Monograph of the Flicker (Colaptes auratus). The Wilson Bulletin, No. 31, 1900. 



22 This author illustrates the supposed progressive series of variations in color. The more primitive pattern is 

 "a black feather with a minute white spot at the tip." The white spot cuts deeper, and by repetition leads to cross- 

 bars. The bars are enlarged to even black — "the white-edged black feather." 



Mr. F. M. Chapman (Bull. Am. Nat, Hist. Vol. Ill, No. 2, page 311), holds the barred feather to be the first in 

 a series that terminates in a "white-edged black feather." 



23 J. A. Allen. The North American species of the genus Colaptes, considered, etc. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.. 

 Vol. IV, No. 1, page 21. 



24 Colaptes hijbndus is described by Allen, page 24. 



