EMBRYOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF OXYGEN-CONSUMPTION AND EGG PARAMETERS INTHE SEMI-ALTRICIAL AUSTRALIAN DIAMOND DOVE, GEOPELIA-CUNEATA

Diamond dove eggs show characteristics typical of semi-altricial birds . All egg parameters that we examined were within the expected range f or semi-altricial birds; only the relative portion of lipid content (7 .9% of egg mass) was different from (25% higher) the mean value for co mparable-sized eggs of semi-altricial birds. The embryonic development of oxygen consumption shows a clear plateau phase with values within the expected range for semi-altricial species. The plateau occurs at 8 3.0 +/- 6.0% of incubation, and is about 1 day in duration; the oxygen consumption per egg is 42.2 +/- 3.14 mL, per day and 0.80 +/- 0.06 mL per g per h, respectively.