on the Direction of Evolution. 175


crescents, * a form characteristic of the Inca Dove and most

of the Geopelias.


The mature color-pattern in Calopelia does not differ

widely in essentials from those seen in some American species,

e.g., the Mourning Dove {Zenaidura carolinensis) and the

Zenaida Dove {Z. amabilis). In the young of these Doves, we

find many typical chequers, more or less evenly distributed over

the whole wing ; in the adult we have only a few of these spots

left, and left in the same region in which the three spots of the

Maiden Dove are located. The obliteration of the spots in the

American birds has, however, not yet been carried quite so far

as in the African Dove. In the mature Mourning Dove, we find

not only a larger number of visible spots, but also ma,7iy concealed

vestigial spots. Zenaida has carried the reduction of spots some-

what further, and stands only a little behind the Maiden Dove.

Our White-winged Pigeon (Melopelia leucoptera) has practically

completed the deletion of spots, only a very few vestigial traces

being discoverable in a single specimen obtained from Jamaica.

I do not find such vestiges in White-wings from Mexico and

Arizona.


In a Cape Dove $ (CEua capensis) that has just come to-

hand, I find indications of a still closer correspondence to the

Zenaida and Zenaidura types. In this dove there are two very

short bars, one on the tertials (with one spot on the right wing„

and two on the left), and another on the inner long coverts (with.

three spots on the right wing and jour on the left). These black

("steel-blue") spots are sub-terminal squarish blocks on the

outer webs. On the inner webs of the tertials bearing the bar-

spots, I find elongate black spots, which are reduced to ?iarrow

marginal streaks in most cases. A tertial with such a streak on

the inner web, extending nearly to its tip, and a bar-spot on its

outer web, at a considerable distance from the tip, presents a

picture quite characteristic of the Zenaidas and the Mourning

Doves.


So close and peculiar a parallel in the mature patterns of

these doves would lead us to expect fully as close a resemblance

in the juvenal patterns; but Salvadori's description of the young


* Sub-apical in the young.



