160 Birds of Colorado 



in the cotton-woods along the river valleys in the plains 

 and foothills. It is a bird of strong flight, and the rapid 

 strokes of its wings make a whizzmg sound. It has a 

 very mournful, cooing note, which soon becomes annoying 

 and tiresome to man, but which appears to gratify its 

 mate. 



The food consists chiefly of seeds and berries and it 

 doubtless takes a toll of the grain fields. 



The nesting season begins early, and eggs can be found 

 from the end of May till the beginning of September, 

 and doubtless two or three broods are raised in a 

 season. 



In the plains the nest is most frequently placed on the 

 ground ; in the mountains, according to Gale, more often 

 in bushes and trees, but the nesting -sites chosen vary 

 very considerably. Two fresh eggs taken by I. C. Hall, 

 and presented to the Colorado College Museum, were 

 found on June 1st near Greeley, in a flat nest of small 

 twigs, placed on a heap of old, dead rushes in a marsh. 

 Gale found nests at the angle where a branch joins a 

 tree-trunk, upon the longitudinal branch of a bunch 

 of undergrowth, upon the crown of an old stump, and 

 upon the ground. 



The nest is a slight affair of a few twigs and sometimes 

 a Httle dry grass. The eggs, generally two in number, 

 though often only one, are pure glossy-white, generally 

 nearly oval, and measure about 1*1 x "9 



Genus MELOPELIA. 



Bill slender and lengthened, about equal to the tarsus ; a bare space 

 round the eye ; tail shorter than the wing, of twelve broad, rounded 

 feathers ; tarsus naked and scutellate ; no black spots on the scapulars, 

 but a white patch on the wing. 



Only one North American species found along the southern border 

 of the United States. 



