13 



become absolutely tame, and will readily answer to a call or whis- 

 tle. Furthermore, it is possible to raise them easily, as they are 

 hardy and need but little care ; they have to be fed but once or 

 twice a day, and can be made to drink a soft mash, of their own 

 accord, from the time they are twenty-four hours old. 



On account of the crop capacity of doves, they are enabled 

 to gather a large quantity of food before returning to the nest 

 to feed the young; it also gives them an opportunity to wander 

 and forage far and wide, thus covering a large territory. If food 

 is scarce, or, as is the case in some places, nesting and roosting 

 trees are far from desirable feeding grounds, the adult birds will 

 travel far to get to where the food is abundant. Occasionally 

 a bird shot in the neighborhood of the Gulf Biologic Station at 

 Cameron during the fall of 1908, contained a crop full of rice, 

 which food could not possibly have been gotten nearer than the 

 Sweet Lake Farms, a distance of 12 to 15 miles, "as the dove 

 flies." 



The young are also well fitted to endure the life they are 

 forced to lead by the habits of the adults. The crop capaicty 

 of yoimg doves is enormous ; up to the time they are three or four 

 weeks old it is possible for them to hold over one-half of their 

 weight of food in the crop. It is likely, in the state of nature, the 

 young are not fed more than three times a day, generally but 

 twice, and often not more than once, especially after the young 

 get to be a week or so old and do not need to be brooded. The 

 writer has Avatched many nests from 1 o'clock to 6 before see- 

 ing any trace of either of the parent birds. In some of these 

 cases it was apparent that the young had been fed not long be- 

 fore, while in others there was no indication of it; showing that 

 here the birds were not fed more than once in the afternoon, and 

 the chances are good that some had not been fed at all, and others 

 but once in the forenoon. Not long before sunset the old birds 

 return to feed the young which will swallow to near the full 

 crop capacity. The average of 78 weighings taken before and 

 after feeding showed an increase of 36 per cent of their own 

 weight. The maximum amount of food given, among those that 

 were observed, was in the case of a squab that weighed 53 grams 

 at 5 o'clock, before feeding, and at 6:15 swung the balance at 88 

 grams, showing that 35 grams of food had been taken, or a crop 

 capacity of over 66 per cent of its own weight. This is unusual. 



