14 



and due most likely to the fact that both parents had stuffed it, 

 it being the only one in the nest. After the evening feeding, the 

 old birds will sometimes go off, evidently to secure more food 

 for themselves. This is especially true as the young get older; 

 but more often the adult female will stay on the nest until morn- 

 ing, while the male goes off, returning at dusk, to take his roost 

 near his mate. 



Like Gallinaceous birds, doves enjoy basking in the sun. Early 

 in the afternoon of any sunny day, if food is abundant enough 

 to make them contented, they will gather in small flocks in an 

 open sandy or dusty place ; there, lying on one side, with wing 

 outstretched, either on the ground or, for a few minutes, straight 

 up in the air, turning themselves from one side to the other, they 

 bathe in the sunshine. It also delights them, while bathing in 

 water, to lie on one side and to stretch the wing of the opposite 

 high above, as if to keep it from getting wet. They are most 

 particular about the water they use for either bathing or drink- 

 ing; preferring to travel miles, which with their strong, direct 

 flight is but a matter of a few minutes, in order to get fresh water, 

 while stagnant water may be everywhere near them. The writer 

 has frequently seen them drinking and bathing in a pool of fresh 

 rimning water which was far from either their roosting of feed- 

 ing grounds; while he has never seen them bathe and but very 

 seldom drink from stagnant ponds near which they feed all day 

 long. Birds kept in captivity will bathe every pleasant day, 

 if provided with fresh water, but if the same water is left to 

 them from day to day they will never indulge. AVater in which 

 doves and pigeons bathe becomes covered with a milky scum 

 and soon fouls, and all water with any sort of a film on the sur- 

 face IS rejected, so long as any other is available. 



The tendency to increase, or prolificness, is often a guide to 

 the natural enemies of a species, and also to the length of life, 

 great reproductive power indicating either short life or acute 

 struggle against many contending agencies. Although there are 

 no definite statistics as to the age that doves will live, yet the 

 general opinion seems to be that they will live many years. A 

 corroboration of this may lie in the fact that they are not very 

 prolific, laying but two eggs at a time, and, as a species, not rais- 

 ing more than two broods a season. This low natural rate of in- 

 crease mav also lead to the conclusion that they have but few 



