THE TURTLE-DOVE PATTERN IN OTHER ORDERS OF BIRDS. 137 



(6) The hutum eared-owl (see Latham, Vol. I, page 307, pi. xni) has the wing- 

 coverts, scapulars, and back-feathers all broadly "dark on the edges and streaked 

 with the same down the shafts." The feathers on the front-neck, breast, and flanks 

 are transversely barred, each feather showing 3 to 4 bars. Even the primaries and 

 the tail are transversely barred. 



(7) In the little pin-tailed grouse (Brisson, Ornith., Vol. I, pi. xix, page 195 of 

 text) the female has bars in the whole back, wings, back and sides of neck, and the 

 upper parts of the head; many of the wing-coverts have the dark crescentic tip. 

 Some of the coverts are crossed by several dark bars which alternate with light ones. 



In the male we find an advance which is marked by a total disappearance of 

 bars from a large portion of the feathers. There are no bars on the head, only a 

 few scattered feathers of the back are barred, and many wing-coverts are unmarked 

 by bars. Evidently we must take the female as standing nearer the original type 

 and the male as a departure. All this reminds of the tendency in pigeons to lose 

 the spots and bars. 



Many grouse are more or less evenly or uniformly barred, e.g., Bonasa scotica. 

 The several species exhibit variations comparable with those found in Geopelia. 



(8) The channel-bill (Latham, Vol. II, page 300, pi. xxxn) has the back and wings 

 of bluish-ash color, each feather tipped with a strong crescentic black edge. All 

 except two middle tail-feathers are transversely barred with white and black bars. 

 The thighs and vent are similarly barred. The black crescentic edges here remind 

 strongly of Geopelia humeralis. 



(9) In the Japanese sparrow-hawk* 8 (Astur gularis] the female has transverse 

 bars on all of the under parts, while the male has a reddish breast and abdomen, 

 with only a few dark bars on the sides of the body posteriorly, between the legs and 

 tail. The male seems to be most differentiated, having lost nearly all of the bars, 

 a plain reddish tint having been substituted. This reminds of the advance made in 

 Geopelia striata over G. tranquilla, the central part of the breast having there also 

 lost its bars and become plain vinous. 



(10) In the cuckoo of Malabar (Cuculus honoratus Linnaeus) transverse bars and 

 crescentic edges coexist in the same species. 49 The head, neck, and back are covered 

 with feathers edged with dark ashy crescents. "Each feather with two light spots 

 next to the crescent one on each web." The scapulars and coverts of the wing 

 are marked in the same way. The two light spots are, in some areas, united as one 

 light center at the feather's tip, the feather still being edged with the dark crescent. 

 Brisson does not refer to the dark edge, but both his figure and that of Buffon 

 represent it plainly, and it reminds strongly of the same mark in geopelias. 



In the tail-feathers, the tertials, and the long feathers of the wing, the "two 

 subapical light spots" are repeated for the whole length of the feather as "regular 

 transverse bars." This shows that the white spots behave like the light centers in 

 Geopelia, the centers either breaking up or repeating themselves, not as spots, 

 but as transverse bars. The whole under side of this bird is transversely barred. 



(11) The emu (Dromceus novce-hollandice) is now 7 considered one of the highest 

 order of birds. Mr. Le Souef, 50 of the Zoological Gardens at Melbourne, reports 



48 See Temminck and Schlegel, in Siebold's Fauna Japonica, 1850, pi. 11. 



49 Brisson, Orn., IV, page 136, pi. XI A, fig. 2. 

 "Emu, Vol. I, Oct. 1901, page 6. 



