Escpedition to the Eastern Canary Islands. 271 



unite tliem with Columha livia liiia, with wLicli up till now 

 they have been considered identical. In fact, it will be noted 

 that in Part I. of this paper I referred to the Rock-Dove as 

 C. livia throughout. I had not then had time to examine 

 the material which is now available, and which has induced 

 me to alter my opinion since I wrote on the Birds of Gran 

 Canaria. 



As Roclv-Doves more than most birds are susceptible to 

 "" wear and tearj" it is necessary to have a complete series 

 to deal with; moreover, all over the world they are inclined 

 to mate with domestic " fancy '■" Pigeons and thus bring in a 

 hybrid strain which eventually ruins the pure breed. This 

 has undoubtedly occurred in the Azores, where a very remark- 

 able race of Rock-Dove is to be found. In the Canary- 

 Islands, however, we have a bird, which although showing 

 marked differences from the typical race, does not exhibit 

 any trace of " crossing," and which is remarkably constant 

 in the characters which I have assigned to it. The main 

 differences, which at once catch the eye, are that the Canarian 

 form is decidedly darker than Rock-Doves from Europe or 

 northern Africa, that they are smaller in size than C. livia 

 livia, and that they have not the pure white lower back which 

 is so conspicuous a feature in typical examples of the 

 Rock-Dove. 



I therefore propose to name the Canarian race Caliimba 

 livia canurieitsis, subsp. nov. 



Type ? . Cueva de las Ninas, Pinar Pajonal, Gran 

 Canaria, 34. i. 10. [Coll. D. A. Bannerman.] 



Culmen 21 5, wing 206, tarsus 29 mm. 



Habitat. All the islands of the Canary Archipelago. 



Columha I. canariensis difiTers from Columha I. livia in 

 having 



1. The colour of the plumage darker throughout ; practi- 



cally no variation is shown in a series of twelve 

 examples. 



2. The feathers of the rump light grey ; a certain amount 



of variation takes place, but C. /. canariensis never 

 exhibits the broad white rump of typical examples of 

 C. I, livia. 



