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some Order of birds ; nevertheless they can be kept safely with birds

of other Orders, since they usually do not interfere with them. I

never had any species of Fruit-Pigeon, nor any species of Columba

excepting one or two domesticated sports of the Rock-Pigeon ; but

of Turtle-Doves I have still a hand-reared example of the British

species given to me some years ago by my friend Mr. F. W.

Frohawk. It is much wilder even now than a fresh-caught bird would

be, rattling about the aviary and so scaring the other birds whenever

a stranger (especially if a lady) passes. I have kept two species of

Zenaidince, the Martinican Dove and the Bronze-necked Dove ; they

are very pretty, but exceedingly quarrelsome ; at least perhaps I

ought not to speak too positively about the latter, because they did

agree well with Necklaced Doves, which they even assisted in

incubating their eggs ; but with other species they certainly were

always at war and particularly in the breeding-season.


Of typical Turtle-Doves distinct from our British species, I

have naturally had plenty of both forms of the common Barbary

Turtle. On one occasion I tried to cross the cock of the white

variety with a white Fantail Pigeon, but she pulled out his feathers

in bunches whenever he approached her, so that the attempt failed.

Of the Half-collared Turtle Mr. Frank Finn gave me a pair in 1893,

but as I could not give them an aviary to themselves I failed to

breed them, although they laid and attempted to sit several times.

In 1899 Major Horsbrugh gave me what purported to be a second

pair ; about 1901 (through the carelessness of a servant) one of them

escaped into the garden and was never recovered, the other died in

1902 and was identified at the Natural History Museum as a

Deceptive Turtle. In 1894 I purchased, as a pair, two cocks of the

Necklaced Dove, one of which killed the other. In 1897 I secured

a hen for the remaining cock and bred young which were

subsequently killed by a Nicobar Pigeon. In 1900 I bought another

supposed pair, which proved not only to be two cocks, but to be

Spotted Turtle Doves ; these I sent to the Zoological Gardens. I

had one Senegal Turtle given to me by Mr. Seth-Smith in 1902 ; it

is a pretty little species. I paired it with Barbary Doves, but it

would not breed.


The Geopeliince are far more quarrelsome than the typical



