3 20 Williams, Color in Relation to Inheritance- \_0c\. 



tipped with it. The underside of the tail feathers is also gray ; 

 while a streak of lilac across the breast is the only trace left of 

 the chestnut band. 



The Passenger Pigeon is a fine example of the typical family, 

 where gray usually predominates. The head and rump are a 

 specially bright shade of gray ; the breast is suffused with the 

 reddish tint, and on the tail some almost concealed patches of 

 chestnut still exist. 



In the Blue-headed Quail Dove (Starmvnas cyanocephala), from 

 Cuba, which represents the Ground Pigeons, the chestnut shade 

 has spread nearly all over the body, but the olive brown of the 

 back indicates the presence of a certain amount of the gray 

 shade, and the rest of the gray, by being concentrated on the 

 head, has become a deeper tint than usual. The legs of this 

 bird, like those of the Crowned Pigeons, are covered with hex- 

 agonal scales ; and the survival of this ancient type of scale, in 

 such distant islands as Cuba and New Guinea, is as interesting 

 and peculiar a fact as the two remaining examples of the tapir 

 family being found, respectively, in the Malay Region and Brazil. 



There is, also, a group of the Duck family, consisting of some 

 sixteen or seventeen species, which form the subfamily Plec- 

 tropterinae of Count Salvadori's classification ; * and all of them 

 display a certain similarity in coloring that has, apparently, been 

 handed down from a primeval type. 



The Horned Screamer (Pa/amedea cornuta) represents a very 

 old form of bird allied to the Ducks. It has spurs on the wings, 

 hexagonal scales on its legs, and a curious horn-like projection 

 on the head. Its main colors are glossy black above and white 

 below. 



The Pied Goose of Australia {A?iseranas 7nelanolcucits) is a 

 more duck-like bird, with partially webbed feet ; its general color 

 is black above and white below, and it occupies an intermediate 

 place between the Horned Screamer and the Plectropterinse, of 

 which the Spur-winged Geese of Africa are typical members ; they, 

 also, are glossy black above and white below, and have a knob, 

 instead of a horn-like growth, on the top of the head. 



1 Brit. Mus. Cat. of Birds. Vol. XXVII. 



