BIRDS OF MANY FAMILIES 207 



SO far as ornithologists are able to determine, 

 these beautiful creatures were exterminated. 

 At least they have entirely disappeared from 

 this part of the world. It is now more than 

 thirty years since the last flock was seen, and a 

 reward of a large sum of money offered for 

 proof of a pair of nesting Wild Pigeons still re- 

 mains unclaimed. There are few better, or 

 worse, examples of the extermination of a once 

 numerous creature. It is paralleled in the case 

 of the American Bison, except in their case the 

 destruction was halted just before the last were 

 destroyed. 



The Mourning Dove is a summer resident of 

 the North, not common, however, except south 

 of New England. Rarely a straggler reaches 

 southern Maine. They are about a foot long, 

 and plump. The upper parts are olive-brown 

 with a tone of bluish-gray; the neck and head 

 show metallic lustre, and there is a small black 

 mark below the ear. The outer tail feathers are 

 slate-gray towards the base; outward they are 

 banded with black and tipped with white. The 

 breast is buff, the under parts otherwise lighter. 

 The female has similar colorings, but rather 

 duller and without the metallic lustre. 



In flight there is a sharp whistling sound made 

 by the wings. They nest in a very rude struc- 

 ture of sticks, scarcely more than a platform, so 

 poorly constructed that sometimes the fledg- 

 lings fall through. Often they occupy an old 

 nest of Robin or Grackle. They usually frequent 

 open woods where the nest is placed in a tree at 

 some distance above the ground. The plaintive 



