THE HOMING INSTINCT. 133 



believe this dove could easily be trained to come home. I have a very tame one which 

 escaped and flew back to my hand. Another escaped and could not be found for some hours, 

 but was then discovered trying to get back into its pen. 



A beautiful hybrid between a male homer and a Japanese turtle (Turtur orientalis) 

 escaped and was gone for two whole days before it returned. When it came back I was 

 standing in the yard. It flew down to the pens and at once recognized its own pen from 

 others and tried to get in. It was evidently hungry. I opened a pen door and soon drove 

 it in and captured it. 



A hybrid between a male passenger and a ring-dove escaped from its pen. It flew at 

 once into a tree. Soon after, it started on a straight, swift flight away from home and was 

 quickly out of sight. I never expected to see it again. About noon of the same day it was 

 found sitting over one of the pens and was captured. This return could not have been due 

 to the instincts of the paternal species, for the wild pigeon would never return. Another 

 similar hybrid returned after an absence of 4 days. 1 



A male mourning-dove from California, which had been kept in confinement for two 

 years, escaped from the pen in Woods Hole on July 2. He stayed about the pens and 

 roosted near his own pen. Some one tried to capture him after dark and failed. It flew 

 off and was not seen for 5 days. On July 8 he came into the yard and fed with the other 

 doves on the ground. I allowed him his freedom for two days, during which time he 

 remained about the yard, and then again captured him and put him in a pen. I think the 

 bird would have remained with me, if nothing had happened to drive him away. The same 

 bird escaped again on July 24. I caught him at night when he was on the ground beside 

 a pen, and put him in the shed, leaving him to go free when the door was opened the next 

 morning. He loitered about a pen in which another male mourning-dove was kept and 

 fancied he had found a mate. Probably he might fly away were there no other mourning- 

 doves about to coo and thus attract him. As it is, he stays by all day. 



One of my white-winged pigeons (Melopelia leucoptera) escaped and flew into the willow 

 behind the house. It was about 4 o'clock. She sat there in the same place until 5 h 30 m , 

 then flew over the pen to a tree behind a neighbor's house. About 6 o'clock she again flew, 

 but passed over the pens and up over the roof of a large house a block away. I never 

 expected to see the bird again. In about 5 minutes the bird was found trying to get into 

 the pen from which it escaped. She tried in vain, and finally took a position for the night 

 in the outer door, where a pane of glass had been broken. There was an inner door which 

 prevented her going further. After dark I went up and captured her. The bird had been 

 kept in the house all winter and had been in the outside pen only about 2 weeks. 



Four Zenaida vinaceo-rufa escaped on Sept. 9. One of these was an old bird, and 3 

 were birds hatched during the summer and had finished or nearly finished the first molt. 

 They escaped from a pen in which I had 17 zenaidas and hybrids. The rest of the flock 

 was isolated in an adjoining pen, and the feed-door of their own pen was left open in the 

 hope they would enter. One was caught on Sept. 11, after it had entered a small cage to 

 get seed left there to entice it. One was caught in a small cage on Sept. 15, after being 

 out for 6 days. Two Japanese turtle X European turtle hybrids escaped at the same time. 

 One of these was seen the next day, but up until Sept. 17, I have not seen either again. 

 One naked-eyed pigeon (Columba guinea ?) escaped at the same time. It returned the same 

 day, walked into the barn, and was easily captured. 



A female ring-dove which had just left its nest about 8 a.m. to the male was allowed 

 to come out of its pen in the back yard. I opened wide the door, thinking that as the bird 

 had a nest and as she was due to lay a second egg that morning she would not go away. 

 She flew to the ground, and after a minute or so up into the large willow; after a few minutes 

 she flew to an adjoining house, soon returned to the willow, but a few minutes later flew 

 over the same adjoining house and was not seen again. This same pair had had their free- 



10 * This case was described in Chapter X. 



