in the ovary which would have been laid in a day or so, it is 

 not likely that the birds, as a species, nest more than twice. Yet 

 in many individual cases, three or more broods may be raised. 

 The nests found late in the season are, however, in all likelihood, 

 delayed second or even first broods, they being produced only as 

 the result of the destruction of the normal brood. It is well 

 known that wdth few exceptions birds wdll build a second or third 

 time if their nests have been destroyed. This capacity for re- 

 building and relaying is probably strong in doves, and the birds 

 will nest several times if each successive nest is destroyed. Like 

 most birds, they will not rebuild in the same place, nor often 

 in the same locality. The writer has three records of where 

 the same pair had rebuilt in the same tree, but this is not often 

 the case. 



As an instance of rebuilding and relaying, it may be interest- 

 ing to cite the record of a Blue Bird, Sialis sialis, observed at 

 Barkhamsted, Conn., during the summer of 1900, w^hich, by hav- 

 ing its eggs taken out one by one as they were laid, leaving one 

 egg always in the nest, laid seventeen eggs in thirty-two days. 

 When, at the end of this time the entire nest was destroyed it 

 proceeded to build another in the same hollow of a tree, and 

 then laid a set of four eggs, three of which were hatched. In 

 this case there is definite proof that one bird laid twenty-tw^o eggs 

 under abnormal circumstances, whereas the number would natur- 

 ally not have exceeded ten for the two broods. If data could be 

 gotten in the case of doves, it would probably prove that the same 

 is true, and that nests are built and eggs laid as often as they 

 are destroyed, up to a certain limit. But since definite data is 

 difficult to obtain on this subject, some light may be gotten by 

 keeping the birds in confinement, and noting how^ manj^ times 

 they have a tendency to breed. It is likely that the natural hab- 

 its will be closely followed if birds are kept in large out-of-door 

 cages, such as are often iised in keeping domestic pigeons. 



In the vicinity of Cameron, La., the doves begin to nest about 

 the first of April, although this date is variable from year to 

 year, depending on the season. The bulk of them having laid 

 by the middle of the next month. Incubation, so far as could be 

 observed, lasts from 19 to 21 days, and begins as soon as the first 

 egg is laid; which results in the hatching of the first egg from 

 24 to 36 hours ahead of the second. Of course all eggs w411 not 



