Thirty-two Years of Aviculture.



331



Of the Blue-spotted Dove I have had two males only, one

which I purchased in 1903 which died towards the end of 1913, and

a second given to me shortly afterwards by Mr. Allen Silver, which

is still in good health. Of the lovely little Emerald Dove Mr.

Bonstow gave me a South African female in 1902 and in 1903 I

purchased a West African male ; they differ a good deal in the size

and tint of the metallic green wing-patches, those on the Southern

bird being much larger and less golden than those on the Western

form, the colouring of the whole of the plumage in the former is

also darker : whether these differences are constant or not is a point

only to be satisfactorily decided after a careful comparison of many

individuals, but it seems probable that the West African form is typical

and that the Southern one is Beichenow’s C. chalcospila, caffra : or

is it volhnanni ? These subspecific names are a nuisance : if the

birds are constant in their differences why not call them species ?

The very beautiful Maiden Dove seems to be rarely imported, but in

1905 nearly a dozen arrived in the London market, and of these I

believe I received the first pair. Unhappily the Maiden Dove is

certainly more delicate when first imported than most members of

its group and my hen died nearly four months after she came into

my hands, the other birds of that species also died in a disappoint¬

ing manner, so that it was impossible to breed the species: my

male bird lived until nearly the end of November 1908 : it was a

charming bird living in perfect friendliness with its two relatives the

Blue-spotted and Emerald Doves and I was very sorry to lose it.

This consignment of Maiden Doves had the metallic wing-spots of a

glittering crimson colour: the green-spotted and crimson-spotted

forms were at one time considered at least subspecifically distinct,

but recent travellers have pretty w T ell disproved that notion : to what

purpose then is the naming of the far less distinct local variations

of the Emerald Dove ?


Of the far less peaceful typical Bronze wings I have had one

male and two females of the Australian Green-winged Dove, one

pair of the gorgeous Australian Bronze-wing and one pair of the

common Australian Crested Pigeon : none of them ever bred suc¬

cessfully in my aviaries, though I tried the two first both in indoor

and outdoor aviaries : they are very hardy and long-lived birds and



