THE TURTLE-DOVE PATTERN IN THE PHYLOGENY OF PIGEONS. 101 



Although I had not yet seen this species, I felt safe in assuming that the develop- 

 ment of its color-pattern would follow the same sequence that I had found to be 

 general among pigeons. Accordingly I ventured to predict that: 



"The young tambourine, the young cape-dove, and some of their nearer allies, will 

 be found to have more or less plain traces of the transient marginal streaks seen in the 

 tertials and long coverts of the inca-dove, and perhaps also dull spots on the outer webs 



anticipating the spots of the adult." 



Through the kindness of Mr. Rathbun, I have received from the U. S. National 

 Museum three specimens of this dove a pair of adults and the "immature" speci- 

 men described by Mr. Oberholser. The latter, as a moment's examination shows, 

 not only verifies my prediction, but also reveals some other features that still further 

 justify the comparison I made with the zenaidas, incas, and geopelias. 



In both the tertials and long coverts (pi. 42, figs. C and D) I find a small number 

 of black chequers on some of the outer webs. These chequers extend very consider- 

 ably farther toward the base of the feather in the coverts than in the tertials and 

 thus show that the chequers are derived from the dark center of the turtle-dove 

 pattern. The light (rufous) apical edge, the sub terminal dark bar, followed by 

 another rufous transverse bar, all reminding of the geopelias, are all found in these 

 juvenal feathers. It is probable, too, that the spots are more numerous in the adult 

 female (pi. 42, fig. B) than in the male. 



The wing-bars of Chalcopelia afra are figured in plates 35 (fig. B) and 42 (fig. E). 

 Shadowy spots or chequers are found on the tertials and longer coverts. These 

 remnants of spots are mostly on the outer webs. The cross-stripes on the back, or 

 rump, of these birds are formed of black-tipped feathers the homologues of the 

 black crescents. 



The iridescent regions of three wing-feathers of Chalcophaps indica are indicated 

 in plate 43 (figs. 1 to 3). 



The young of this species seem to have the turtle-dove pattern. Mr. D. Seth- 

 Smith 48 says: 



"On leaving the nest the young birds are dark brown, the feathers of tiie head, breast, 

 and wing-coverts being broadly margined with chestnut. Some of the lesser wing-coverts are 

 green, and there is a distinct greenish tinge to some of the secondaries and their coverts.' 1 



In Phaps chalcoptera (the bronze-wing) we find bars developed over nearly the 

 whole wing; 49 in Phaps elegans (the brush bronze-wing) there are only two posterior 

 bars. 



In Geophaps smithi (Smith's ground-dove) we find only a few feathers of the 

 two posterior bars retaining a bronze color (see pi. 48, fig. C). 



In Ocyphaps (crested pigeon) we have many bars, strongly reduced, and in 

 Lophophaps we get a further reduction. 



Lophophaps leucogaster (text-fig. 9) stands above Ocyphaps also in having no 

 elongated marks or marginal streaks on the long coverts. (Reference to this pat- 

 tern is made in Chapter II. ED.) 



"Avicultural Magazine, July 1906, p. 277. 



49 A scapular showing a marginal chequer and the "fundamental barring" is shown in pi. 43, fig. 4. 



