VOICE AND INSTINCT IN PIGEON HYBRIDIZATION AND PHYLOGENY. 119 



The oldest hybrid (D 2) pecked at some worms lying in sight and tried them several 

 times in his beak as if to test them. Coming to a worm which was nearly buried, and which 

 contracted quickly on being seized, the bird became more eager, and with one or two pulls 

 drew it from its burrow. The bird picked it up several times, dropping it after testing it 

 in end of the beak; it then picked up the worm, taking it farther into its beak as if to swallow 

 it, but again dropped it. At the next trial the worm was swallowed. The same bird soon 

 after swallowed two other worms, and without many trials. F 2 tried the worms over 

 and over, but did not swallow them. G 2 swallowed one, after many trials with its beak. 

 G 1 was in a nest-box at the time, and so did not participate. 



The male ring-dove walked back and forth over the pan, but never once stopped to 

 touch a worm. (I later saw a worm eaten by one of my ring-doves.) 



Here, then, is a case where the instinct, received from the father, acts independently 

 of imitation. The bird's instinct led it to be attracted by the worm at first sight, and the 

 wriggling of the worm stimulated the bird to snatch it quickly from its burrow, just as the 

 adult Ectopistes does. 1 The birds had never before tasted of worms, having been bred under 

 ring-doves and having received only seed and bread. 



One of these hybrids escaped from a pen and was not seen for 4 days. At the end of 

 4 days it came back, and after staying about all the afternoon, it tried to get back into its 

 own pen. I opened the door a few inches and it walked in at once. The wild parent would 

 never have returned; its ring-dove parent would probably have returned. The hybrid 

 has the "home instinct" from its mother, and has it certainly in a higher degree than the 

 father. 



The passenger-pigeon, when captured, emits a cry of distress or terror, and struggles 

 hard to escape. If it finds its struggles of no avail, it will soon stop and often lie motionless 

 in the hand, feigning dead, for some moments after the hand is open. It will lie for nearly 

 a minute on a shelf if left undisturbed. It is a mode of playing dead. The passenger hybrid 

 also emits a shriek on being caught, struggles, and at length remains motionless, as if 

 dead. Its action is therefore like that of the paternal species. This trick may be played 

 by almost any dove, but is more marked in the passenger and its hybrid. (R 14.) 



VOICE AND BEHAVIOR IN CERTAIN WILD SPECIES. 

 VOICE AND SEXUAL BEHAVIOR OF ECTOPISTES.' 



An adult male ring-dove (C) and an Ectopistes (I A) young, a little over 3 weeks old, 

 were allowed to go free in my library. Both were sitting on top of the pens. C began to 

 walk towards I A, with a view to driving him off. The latter seeing him coming, emitted 

 at intervals a simple sound, much like a low, mild cluck of a sitting hen. This note is quite 

 different from the scolding note when the bird threatens to attack. 



A few minutes later C again approached rather slowly and without show of hostility. 

 / A gave one cluck, lowering his head, and then emitted the single call which the male 

 gives when calling his mate to nest. This cluck is the "danger-note," or at any rate indis- 

 tinguishable from it. A little later this same day I heard the danger-note emitted when a 

 bird was seen flying in the distance. Another passenger (/ B) only 4 weeks old, while 

 sitting on his perch, was approached by a ring-dove. The young pecked at the intruder, 

 and in doing so gave an audible puff of air from its beak, quite the same as one hears in 

 the young domestic pigeon when it is approached by anything strange to it (e.g., a hand). 

 The young Ectopistes (I B) has not been heard to squeal for some time, but it has not yet, 



1 A case of a young passenger (4 weeks, 4 days old) eating earthworms is cited under "Food Instincts," Chapter 

 XII. It is stated that rinji-doves oat earthworms "when they have young to feed." EDITOR. 



2 For more than one reason it seems desirable to preserve these records on the voice and behavior of the now 

 extinct passenger-pigeon. EDITOR. 



