BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 395 



the groves of New England, where the voice of the Passenger 

 Pigeon has so long been silent. 



There is some evidence in old chronicles that the "Turtle 

 Dove" was once abundant in New England, but it is so fre- 

 quently confused with the Passenger Pigeon that nothing of 

 any value can be deduced from these old accounts. Even to- 

 day the same confusion regarding the two species exists in the 

 minds of the people, and the Mourning Dove is now known as 

 the "Wild Pigeon" in sections of southern New England. 

 Within my recollection this Dove has decreased in numbers in 

 many parts of Massachusetts. Fifty-nine of my correspond- 

 ents reported in 1908 that it had been decreasing for years, 

 but since the law protecting it at all times was passed in 1908, 

 it evidently has increased in a portion of the Connecticut valley 

 and on some parts of Cape Cod. Thirty-three observers noted 

 such an increase. 



The Mourning Dove is somewhat widely, though rather 

 locally, distributed through southern New England and New 

 York, but is rare or wanting at elevations above one thousand 

 feet, and in the northern portions of the region. It is a social 

 species, assembling sometimes in large flocks, but I have 

 never seen more than twelve together in Massachusetts, 

 although others have been more fortunate. The Dove is quite 

 prolific though ordinarily it lays but two eggs in a set. It has 

 two or more broods, and eggs may be found in the nest from 

 May to September. The nest is so frail and so carelessly built 

 that it seems as though the slightest blow would scatter it. The 

 twittering or whistling sound that this bird makes as it rises 

 from the ground appears to come from the wings; but once I 

 distinctly heard a Dove make this sound while sitting on a 

 branch with its wings motionless. 



The Mourning Dove is fond of small grains, particularly of 

 buckwheat. It sometimes does some injury to newly sown 

 grain fields, but is very destructive to weed seeds. Eaton says 

 that he took several thousand seeds of foxtail or pigeon grass 

 from the crop of a Dove which he shot from a flock of thirty 

 which were flying from an oat field. He computes that the 

 members of this flock had just picked up about two quarts of 



