1902.] F. Finn — General Nntns on Variation in Birth. 167 



whiteness. The pied markings are irregular and unnatural-looking. 

 There is a cinnamon form, showing the markings of the dai'k-brown 

 type on a fawn-coloured ground. This is generally pied with, white, 

 grading, as the dark-pied birds do, into complete whiteness, and pied 

 irregularly like them. 



Pure white birds are less common than pied ones, but more so than 

 dark-brown typical or pure cinnamon birds. 



There is no intergrn elation between the brown and cinnamon forms. 



The bill and legs vary as in the Canary ; they are normally 

 coloured in normal or nearly normal types, fleshy white in cinnamon, 

 white, and light-pied forms The upper chap may be black and the 

 lower fleshy white, in correspondence with the liead-niarking. 



The cinnamon and white forms are smaller than the dark-brown 

 ones. 



The Collared Dove (Tnrtur risorius). The exact origin of the 

 domestic Turtle-dove is unknown ; its varieties are of three types The 

 ordinary form is creamy-fawn with drab primaries and white tips to 

 the tail-feathers except the central pair ; a half -collar on the nape 

 and the proximal half of all the tail-feathers below are black The 

 bill is black, the iris red, the feet purple-red, and the eyelids creamy- 

 white. The sexes are similar, though the cocks are almost impercep- 

 tibly lighter about the head. The young have no distinct collar, have 

 fleshy-coloured bills and paler red feet. This form does not vary more 

 than a wild bird, and English- and Indian-bred specimens are alike. 



There is also a white form with a flesh-coloured bill and paler red 

 eyes; the pupil is often red (non-pigmented) in these. This may have 

 a dark collar, but is generally without it. 



There is an intermediate form, coloured generally as in the common 

 type, but with the primaries white, collar drab, all tail feathers white 

 but the two central, which are buff, and grey at base of tail below 

 instead of black. The bill in this form is flesh-coloured and the irides 

 light red as in the white birds. I have only seen this in India. 



Mr. D. Ezra, to whom I showed birds of this intermediate form 

 tells me he got somewhat similar birds by crossing the white and black- 

 collared fawn types. He is sure they were not pied or splashed as 

 Pigeons often are. 



I have seen in cages of these Doves specimens of a drab colour with 

 with dark ring, identical in plumage with the wild T. douraca of India, 

 but in the absence of opportunities of studying these individuals I cannot 

 say whether they were tame or wild specimens ; I think the latter. 



The Rock-Pigeon (Columba livia and intermedia) has been so 

 long bred selectively that it is not a good species on which to study 



