214 



INHERITANCE, FERTILITY, AND SEX IN PIGEONS. 



case of the C. guinea x C. livia cross. The very peculiar mark of C. guinea (see 

 text-fig. 7) is easily recognized in that of the hybrid which is shown in text-fig. 8; 

 but in the latter the divided and bristling characteristics of the feathers concerned 

 are less striking, and in some feathers there is no such division at all. This differ- 

 ence is recorded in pi. 33. 



I may remark incidentally that the ring-dove gets its ring from the turtle-dove, 

 and the turtle-dove has a "pair of spots" such as you sec in the Japanese turtle- 

 dove six or seven rows of feathers with whitish or grayish edges and darker basal 

 portions. In the homer x ring hybrid referred to above the dark color of the male 



Eleven rows nrr involved in the neck- 

 mark; the upper and lower rows are 

 least differentiated. Some front feathers 

 adjoining these rows are sharp-cut, stiff, 

 and scale-like. The white is carried to 

 the upper limit; in ring-doves it is carried 

 to both upper and lower limits or edges 

 of the mark, while in the wood-pigeon 

 (C. palumbus, text-figure 6) it remains in 

 the more narrowly differentiated area 

 corresponding nearly with the turtle- 

 dove spot. 



TEXT-FIGURE 5. Neck-markof adult male band-tail pigeon, Columbafasciala. X 1.2. G. A. Wilson del., 1900. 



parent is reduced a great deal. There are here lighter edges to the feathers and 

 dark-gray basals. The ring-dove and the turtle-dove agree in the number of rows of 

 feathers involved in the neck-mark, and in every hybrid that we make between either 

 of them and other doves that have iridescence we get the sort of blend of neck-mark 

 seen in this homer x ring hybrid. Adding another word to this digression, I may 

 remark that the common pigeon and the passenger-pigeon, and all the rest of the 

 group of pigeons, have probably been derived from an ancestor differing not very 

 greatly from the Japanese turtle-dove. The simple condition of neck-ring and body- 

 color, etc., found still in T. orientalis, represents a very natural starting-point for 

 all the species of pigeons, although there are more than 500 specie^ recognized 

 to-day in this group of birds. 



