on Some Turtle Dove Hybrids and their Fertility. 195


Museum bird and bad the wing-coverts more plainly striped.

And lastly a pair I had, which were bred in England, were again

smaller, but brighter in their colours with the shaft stripes on the

wings broader and more distinct (though these are features

which I believe increase with age), the tail also seems longer in

proportion, and the whole bird is more graceful. It is from the

cock of this last pair that my hybrids were bred.


The first two, hatched in 1902, were produced under

rather curious circumstances. I have mentioned above that

during this year I had a Barbary hen mated to her hybrid

(I Turtle x f- Barbary) son. He was not a very demonstrative

mate ; and, after they had reared their first two young ones, I was

surprised to find that the next nest they had contained two very

dark young ones, which I at first could not make out. In the

same compartment was a cock Necklaced dove, which had

lately lost his mate, and which I had frequently noticed was on

friendly relations with the Barbary hen. It soon turned out that

these two young were undoubtedly Necklaced x Barbary

hybrids. The necklaced cock was mated to this Barbary

throughout last season ; with the result that seven more young

ones have been reared from them, all resembling these first two.


The Necklaced x Barbary hybrid is a decidedly attractive

bird, taking chiefly after the male parent, and may be briefly

described as follows :—Mantle with the scapular region a rich

brown, the latter with narrow dark grey median stripes expand¬

ing slightly towards the tips of the feathers ; the outermost wing-

coverts ashy grey, almost concealed when the wing is closed ;

quills very dark brown approaching black, and longer in pro¬

portion than in the pure Necklaced Dove; tail, long, the three

outer feathers 011 each side graduated and tipped with greyish

white; head, with the throat and breast grey with a strong vinous

tinge; on each side of the neck, narrowly joined at the back, a

large patch of black feathers edged with white somewhat after

the manner of the English Turtle dove. These feathers can

hardly be said to be bifurcated, as in T. tigrinus, but most ot

them seem to have a break in the centre ; in fact they may be

said to be intermediate between the corresponding feathers of

the two parent species. Another point in which it rather



