156 



How to Sex Cage Birds. 



Rufous Dove (Leptoptila reichenbachii). 



Only a male is sexed in the Museum, therefore the same differences 

 may be looked for as indicated for the preceding species. 



Orange-winged Dove (Leptoptila oohroptera). 



Here, again, the same sexual differences should be looked for ; 

 features not readily discerned in dried skins are quite apparent in 

 living birds. 



White-fronted Dove {Leptoptila jamaicensis). 



It is much to be regretted that Miss Alderson and others who 

 have bred this species, and evidently were able to recognise the sexes 



WHITE-FRONTED DOVE. 



(From a Photograph by Miss Alderson.) 



in life, have not recorded any sexual differences. In the Museum 

 there are no sexed specimens, and it is some time since I last saw a 

 living pair; but I am almost sure the forehead of the male was 

 whiter and the entire bird a trifle larger than the female. 



Wells' Ground Dove (Leptoptila wellxi). 



"The female is very similar, the forehead less white, and the 

 colouring generally, perhaps, a trifle duller " (Butler, Foreign Bird- 

 Keeping, part ii. p. 97). 



I hardly know why this should have been called a Ground Dove ; 

 it is not more so than the Zenaidiwe. My widowed hen during the 

 last year of her life seemed to hint at her relationship to the true 

 Turtle Doves by trying to get at some in the next aviary, yet when 

 I turned one in with her they never paired up, and she continued 

 to lay clear eggs incessantly for a whole year and longer. 



