224 Correspoude?ice.


CHEQUERS AND BARS IN PIGEONS.


Sir, — I think the Society may rejoice that I misunderstood Prof.

C. O. Whitman's statement as to chequers preceding bars in Pigeons, since

it induced him to send us so valuable and interesting an essay on this

subject.


The reason for my mistake will be evident when I tell our members

that, in the days in which I did much description, I always tried to dis-

tinguish between bars, bands and belts, in indicating the markings on a

species : — A short narrow stripe I called a bar, a long narrow or moderately

wide stripe (whether or not it crossed a wing) I called a band, but a broad

stripe of colour which crossed a wing, I called a belt.


In like manner, speaking of individual feathers, where a transverse

stripe crosses from one side to the other I call it a band; where it does not

-quite reach the margins of the feather, a bar* possibly I may sometimes

have deviated from this rule, but if so it has been unintentionally.


Now, as Captain Shelley described the young of the Maiden Dove as

having "black bars on the scapulars, wing-coverts and secondaries;" as

moreover adult birds which are similarly marked are frequently described

in the same way,t I naturall}' concluded that scientific workers in

ornithology followed the same unwritten laws which appealed to me ; and

it never occurred to me that a bar occupying the position of the chequer in

another species, would be described as a chequer, and that the band or belt

formed by the modification of the juveual bars would be spoken of as a bar.

Looking, therefore, upon chequers as spots of colour and bars as short

transverse stripes, I uaturall}' concluded that in the African Bronzewing

Doves bars preceded chequers, and I am greatly indebted to Prof. Whitman

for his courteous explanation of his meaning. A. G. Butter.



IDENTIFICATION OF WEAVER.


Reply to query pom Mr. Kenneth Cookson.


The Weaver, which at first I took to be the male of Hyphaniomis

nigriceps in winter plumage, proves (on comparison with the skins in the

Natural History Museum) to be H. cncnllatus. Males of Hyphaniomis ■ when

out of colour are not easily recognizable excepting by actual comparison.


A. G. Butler.



* Rows of feathers crossed by transverse bands might constitute a barred wing.


+ Pallas' Sand-Grouse — "The plumage may be described as sandy, barred with black or

blown," Tcge.tmeier, may be quoted as an example.



