pigeon_dove_hybrids

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Pigeon/dove Hybrids
Hybrids: picture 1, picture 2, picture 3, picture 4

Pigeon dove hybrid on my mother's hand. This is one of several hybrids of Columba livia crossed with Streptopelia risoria that I produced in Oklahoma in the late 1940's. This bird comes from a male Budapest white storked tumbler with a ringneck female. My mother, Mrs. Dorothy Ethel Virgin Miller, was able to sell most of these hybrids to the US navy for physiological experiments.

This dilute silky pigeon/dove hybrid was produced in the Iowa State University dove colony.

This spread black silky pigeon/dove hybrid is approximately 18 years old. It was produced in the Iowa State University dove colony.

This albino pigeon/dove hybrid was produced in the Iowa State University dove colony. This albino hybrid proves that albino in pigeons and the albino in ringneck doves are alleles (alternative mutants at the same spot on a chromosome), since both are recessive mutants.

Species hybrids should be produced only for experimental purposes. Since this is not only a species cross, but also a generic cross [Columba livia/Streptopelia risoria], these hybrids are sterile like mules. But the males, at least, are vigorous and will mate and raise fostered eggs and hatchlings.

If the original pigeon is a male mated with a ringneck female, then 98% of the progeny will be males. If the cross is a male ringneck with a female pigeon, then approximately half will be male and half female progeny which is the normally expected ratio. The females never lay.

Such crosses are not easy to make. The pigeon male will tend to "drive" the female ringneck more than she expects. She may be scalped by the male. Placed alone in isolated cages in near view of each other for a time of perhaps 2 weeks, then together, apart from other doves or pigeons, is one way to mitigate the danger.

The red cell antigens have been studied by several investigators. Primarily, Professor M. R. Irwin [my major professor] utilized the hybrids produced by Dr. L. J. Cole to show a mysterious "hybrid substance" related to that found in pearlneck/ringneck, senegal/ringneck, and other species hybrids also investigated by Irwin. This was a great puzzle to geneticists of that time (1930's-40's), since the hybrid substance was inherited as a dominant but not present in either parental species. I was able to show that it is much like a (serological) interaction product well known for other more ordinary characters. Further, I showed that it resulted from the CC' red cell species-specific antigenic complex of the cross of the triangular spotted pigeon with the domestic pigeon. For more complex details see my CV references.

Hybrids: picture 1, picture 2, picture 3, picture 4