216 



INHERITANCE, FERTILITY, AND SEX IN PIGEONS. 



as compared with the father. Reference to pi. 34 will make this clear. The 

 father's black ring is not more than half the width of that of the hybrid. Again, 

 the arrangement of the feathers in rows can be seen more distinctly in the hybrid 

 than in the mother, owing to the fact that the split at the tip of the feather is 

 reduced to not more than one-half of what is seen in the mother. The interesting 

 point is that the split does appear in the hybrid, and is of a size that would 

 come fairly under the term intermediate. It remains to be noted that the size of 

 the dark median streaks of the wing-feathers, in comparison with the maternal 

 ancestor's spots, are very much reduced; but they are clearly visible in the hybrid. 



TEXT-FIGURE 7. 



Neck-mark of adult, male guinea- 

 pigeon, C. guinea. Natural size, Ha- 

 yashi del., March 1903. 



The neck-feathers, all around and 

 up to the ear-coverts, arc bifid (bifur- 

 cated at the tip.) Sec feathers and 

 drawings on pi. 33, figs. 7 to 14. 

 Iridescence is here very weak. The 

 Chinese, the Surate, and tiger turtle- 

 doves all have bifurcated feathers on 

 the sides of the neck. These neck- 

 feathers are arranged in curved rows, 

 as can be best seen when the bird 

 stretches its neck. This curvature of 

 the rows is general in Columba and 

 Turtur. 



ll ' ' 





The male risoria x suratensis hybrid just described was next crossed with a 

 white ring-dove. 9 The result, as may be seen in pi. 26, was a further simple 

 modification of the male parent's pattern everything was made lighter and the 

 size of the neck-spot still further reduced, and even the slight division at the tips of 

 the feathers appears in some feathers. This is better seen in the flat view of the 

 neck-mark in pi. 34. A sharpness of the extreme center (the vane) of the wing- 

 feathers is all that remains of the median spot. 



I later crossed this i risoria-\ suralensis-% alba male hybrid with a dark hybrid 

 from a cross of the blond ring and the Chinese red ring (St. humilis). An adult 



9 The white ring (St. alba) has been figured in pi. 8, and described in Chapters VII and XV. EDITOR. 



