BLEEDING HEART PIGEON. 87 
in another less green and much more purple. This 
metallic green also shows on the lower back, which 
is blackish brown, as are also the long wing 
feathers and the tail. The wings are clear light 
grey crossed by two distinct bars of blackish 
brown; the shoulder also shows some greenish 
reflections. The cheeks, throat and breast are 
white, being very pure on the first-named parts. 
In the centre of the upper breast is a blood-red 
irregular patch, looking as if the bird were 
mortally wounded. The feet are crimson, the beak 
slate-black, the iris purple. The hen bird is 
smaller than the cock and more slightly built, the 
neck especially being more slender. The metallic 
green is less vivid in the hen, and sometimes the 
under-parts are buffish. 
specimens—four true pairs and an odd hen. Three 
of the cocks I have had for some time. One of 
these was bought nine years ago last March for 
the very small sum of 1o0/-, and this price included 
a white Java sparrow. I think the dove’s owner 
must have got tired of keeping an odd bird, for I 
can never understand why he sold him for so 
little. 
In the same year, in September, I bought a 
supposed hen from a gentleman in Scotland, and 
the joy of the first bird was great—he puffed him- 
self out and cooed and sat on the same perch dress- 
ing the new arrival’s feathers; at night they were 
on the nest-basket, and the cock-bird sat in the nest 
and quivered his wings; and yet, would you believe 
it, all the time these birds were two cocks, and IJ 
never found it out until some time 
YounGc BLeepinc Heart Doves. 
From The Avicultural Magazine. 
WILD LIFE. 
The Bleeding Heart is often found for sale in 
the Manila market, being a very favourite bird of 
the Spaniards. This pigeon is commonly known 
as Pufialada, meaning ‘‘stabbed with a dagger.’’ 
Very little seems known of its wild life. There 
is a legend that there is a variety pure white except 
for the ‘‘heart,’’ but I think this must be a wood- 
land myth of the natives, for I have never heard of 
a live specimen, though I have seen it illustrated 
in an old book on pigeons. 
LIFE IN CAPTIVITY. 
I have kept many Bleeding Heart pigeons, for 
I must confess to a great weakness for them, and 
a desire (wisely ungratified) to buy everyone I see 
offered for sale. At the present time I have nine 
later. 
I advertised for a hen-bird, but 
got no response—nothing at all save 
a letter from a lady, a complete 
stranger to me, asking if I had a 
spare ccck to part with, as she had 
a hen that had laid a great number 
of eggs and she had spent a small 
fortune in trying to find a mate for 
her. This letter put a bold plan 
into my head. My two cocks were 
such beauties that I did not want 
to part with them, but at the same 
time I had a great wish to breed 
this dove; so I wrote to the lady 
and said, will you let me have your 
bird for the summer, and if I can 
rear any young ones we will divide 
them? After a few days an answer 
came that “Joey” was to come 
tome..... The letter went on to 
say how very much the lady valued 
her pet, for it used to let her 
catch it without being frightened, 
and it would often come and settle on her head, 
and coo and flutter its wings when she spoke to it. 
The affection the lady had for the bird was 
evidently so genuine that I began to regret what 
I had done. Suppose the bird died whilst with 
me! JI began to imagine all sorts of dreadful fates 
for it, and felt quite uneasy. But in bird-keeping 
disasters come soon enough without anticipating 
them. ‘‘Joey’’ arrived in March, and never had a 
day’s illness till she died between one and two 
years afterwards. She had many nests, and three 
young ones lived to be adult. 
The first two were from one nest, and turned out 
later to be both cocks. They were two of the finest 
birds I have ever seen. JI wonder if it is true that 
aviary-bred birds (where the parents have always 
had more than enough food to feed the young with) 
