246 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



March or April, and stays till October. The usual haunts 

 of the bird are extensive meadows, where it hunts mice 

 and frogs by gliding low over the grass and occasionally 

 dropping to the ground, beating up and down apparently 

 in a regular course. It is found, however, even in the 

 hills, where there are only restricted swampy tracts. In 

 the breeding season the male performs aerial revolutions, 

 dropping from a height, turning, and screaming in his 

 descent. When the nest is approached, the parents swoop 

 at the intruder, uttering cries like the syllables geg, geg t 



gey- 



When it flies low, the pure white upper tail-coverts offer 

 an unmistakable field-mark ; they are especially conspicu- 

 ous in the brown birds, the females and immature males. 

 The adult male is a beautiful bird, the delicate gray shade 

 of its plumage and the black-tipped wings suggesting a 

 gull. Sometimes the Marsh Hawk is seen at a considerable 

 height ; at such a time its long tail distinguishes it from 

 the Red-shouldered Hawk, and its long wings from the 

 Cooper's Hawk. 



PIGEONS: ORDER COLUMB^ 



PIGEONS : FAMILY COLUMBIDiE 



Mourning Dove. Zenaidura macroura 

 11.85 



Ad. $ . — Back of head bluish-gray ; rest of head and neck 

 pinkish-brown, sides of neck with metallic reflections ; a small 

 black spot below the ear ; back, and wings and tail when closed 

 brown ; outer tail-feathers and wing-feathers, when opened, 

 bluish ; the outer tail-feathers much shorter than the middle 

 pair, banded with black, tipped with white • breast pinkish-brown ; 

 belly buffy. Ad. $?. — Similar, but duller; hardly any bluish 

 on head. Im. — Duller and browner than 9 • 



Nest, a loose platform of sticks, generally in trees, not over ten 

 feet from the ground. Eggs, two, white. 



