on Some Turtle Dove Hybrids and their Fertility. 197


beauty of the hybrid lies in the extraordinary size of the neck

patches, the backwardly-placed collar of the Necklaced dove

having to a certain extent combined with the forwardly-placed

neck patches of the Senegal dove, so as to form a beautiful wide

collar, extending fully f- of the way round the neck, only being

broken in front by the rich vinous of the throat and breast.

This collar is composed of strongly bifid feathers ; which is only

to be expected’, as this feature is possessed by both parents.

These feathers are black with rusty vinous tips. The head is

grey with a strong vinous wash ; the scapulars and smaller wing-

coverts show distinct rusty edgings, the stripes of tigrinus have

nearly disappeared, only being represented by the darker colour

of the actual shafts of some of the feathers, being most pro¬

nounced in the tertials. The whole wing when spread out is very

pretty ; the warm rusty-tinted portion nearest the body being

separated from the almost black primaries by the grey outer

wing-coverts which are delicately edged with ash colour, forming

a grey patch in the centre of the extended wing. Their notes

very much resemble those of the Necklaced x Barbary hybrid.


I allowed the Necklaced x Senegal hybrids to mate

together in June, 1903, as I believe that young, bred from hybrid

parents, both of the same cross, are wanted, as shedding light on

the subject of the origin of species. But though seven or eight

eggs were laid, most of them were soon broken, and the birds

did not seem inclined to sit on those that were left. Two eggs,

which I managed to get incubated by other pairs were not fertile;

but this certainly does not prove that this pair could not have

bred.


In the above account I wish to emphasize that not only

did three distinct hybrids breed, but that they were all extremely

fertile, as the following table shows :—


No. of eggs No. of young


Parents laid. hatched.


<? T. turtur x T. risorius with ? T. risorius .. 6 ... 5


S \ T. turtur x f- T. risorius with ? T. risorius .. 6 .. 2*


S T. tigrinus x T. risorius with ? T. risorius \ j 6, and 1 fertile


(var. alba.) j 0 ) egg uiihatched



* In this case the immaturity of the male, as has already been shown, was the

probable cause of no young being produced in first two nests.



