BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



MOURNING doves, whose "billing and cooing" 

 have become proverbial, are as devoted pairs of 

 lovers as may be found in the bird-world. The ardent 

 male appears to seek the society of none except his lovmg 

 mate. She seems perfectly satisfied with his attentions 

 and evidently gives him her whole heart. 



Madame Dove is a very inefficient housekeeper. Her 

 nest, built of rough sticks, and notoriously ill-constructed 

 — is a sort of platform on which two white eggs are laid. 

 It is a wonder that they remain in safety long enough to be 

 hatched, for the nests are often not more than ten feet 

 from the ground. Were not her twin-babies as phleg- 

 matic as their parents, they might roll out of bed and come 

 to an untimely end. 



It is fortunate that the easy-going mother does not need 

 to prepare the bountiful repasts her family demand. She 

 and her husband select a home-site near fields where weeds 

 abound and where grain is raised. The family gorge 

 themselves upon seeds until they almost burst. Mr. 

 Charles Nash says that "these birds are often so full of 

 seeds that, if a bird is shot, the crop bursts open when it 

 strikes the ground." ^ 



They are of enormous economic value. Their food is 

 almost entirely vegetable, and consists largely of the seeds 

 of weeds that a farmer must pay to have destroyed or 

 work hard to eradicate. Doves frequent fields of wheat, 

 corn, buckwheat, rye, oats, and barley, but the grain they 

 destroy is only a third of their food, and consists largely 

 of waste kernels, according to the reports of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture.^ They like many varieties of in- 



1 "Useful Birds and Their Protection"— E. H. Forbush, page 324. 



2 Farmers' Bulletin 513, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Biological Survey. 



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