116 BEHAVIOR OF PIGEONS. 



Sometimes only one foot beats time, sometimes neither is lifted. This lifting of feet is 

 characteristic of the mother species and turtle-doves in general (also crested pigeon and 

 geopelias). The voice is a deep bass, very strong. 



This bird is especially fond of ring-doves, and I have only to bring one to him to get 

 him to coo at any time. 1 He is so tame that within a foot of my head he pays scarcely any 

 attention to me, behaving just as if I were not present. 



A brother to the above described hybrid has a "danger-note" a short grunt or growl- 

 like that of the two parent species. To-day the hybrid "cooed" three times to a ring-dove. 

 The voice is unlike that of any other hybrid, and in quality certainly has something of the 

 mother. 



The only female 2 hybrid I have thus far obtained of this kind one between a homer 

 and a Japanese turtle-dove was heard to give, after copulation, the peculiar note which 

 is common to the maternal species, the Asiatic turtle, and the mourning-dove. (R 14.) 



The following cases of mixed instincts in hybrids may be given here, though 

 other cases have been given in previous chapters: 



A hybrid between a common pigeon and a ring-dove, when first set free from a pen 

 or w T hen it escapes, is quite as likely to alight in a tree, 3 if one is near, as on the roof of a 

 house. This has often been tested in Woods Hole and in Chicago. The hybrid takes to a 

 tree like a ring-dove; the latter shows a decided preference for the tree, and generally at 

 mid-day seeks one in which to rest, even though it must go farther for the tree than for a 

 house. 



The ring-dove prefers "night quarters" on the outside, even in the rain, to going in. 

 The same is true of the crested pigeon and others. The dove-cote pigeon seeks shelter 

 early by sunset or before. This hybrid prefers to go inside at night, but is slower to retire. 

 I have four hybrids free, and some dozen dove-cote pigeons also free ; the hybrids are always 

 the last to retire. In other words, these hybrids are less strongly inclined to seek shelter at 

 night. The same is seen in stormy weather, when the hybrids, like the ring-doves, usually 

 remain outside, while the dove-cote pigeons prefer shelter and usually go in. 



Why does one prefer shelter from rain and for the night, while the other prefers to 

 remain in the open, refusing to remain inside, however many times it may be driven in? 

 Probably the dove-cote pigeon actually "feels" safer in a cot at night, and finds the shelter 

 from wind agreeable, while the ring-dove is so constituted that it "feels" more comfortable 

 in the open than in the cot. It certainly shows repugnance to the cot or a shed. How is 

 this difference brought about? Originally all prefer the open; the dove-cote pigeon has 

 been trained to "dove-cot," and individuals that keep to cot are safest and therefore 

 protected. 4 (R 14.) 



HYBRID BETWEEN A MALE ZENAIDURA CAROLINENSIS AND A FEMALE ST. RISORIA. 



This male hybrid calls in the nest-box to a female Zenaidura which has just been placed 

 in the adjoining pen. The tail is raised about the same as in either parent species; but it 

 is not spread at all with the call, at least not in this specimen. It is usually, though not 

 always, spread in the mourning-dove. The tails of both are vibrated about the same as 

 in the ring-dove. 



The "nest-call" is repeated quite regularly once in 5 seconds, now and then a little 

 short of 5 seconds, so that 1 or 2 seconds may be gained in the course of 6 or 7 calls; at 



1 The records show that this hybrid was hatched and reared by ring-doves. (O. R.) 

 The hybrids obtained from family crosses were practically all males. (O. R.) 



1 This refers to the well-known fact that the dove-cote pigeon and the rock-dove shun trees, alighting on the ground, 

 on rocks, or on houses. (W. C.) 



4 Cf. Darwin's view that the dove-cote pigeon must have come from a wild ancestor, such as C. livia, which lived 

 in caves and not in trees. (Animals and Plants under Domest., Vol. I.) 



