Order COLUMBIFORMES 



Family COLUMBIDAE, Pigeons, Doves 



COLUMBA FASCIATA FASCIATA Say 



BAND-TAILED PIGEON 



HABITS 



It was a bright, sunny, cold morning, after a frosty night in 

 February, when I first made the acquaintance of this fine bird, the 

 band-tailed pigeon. The sun was shining full of genial warmth on 

 the tops of the tall sycamores and eucalyptus trees, which grew in 

 a deep arroyo in southern California, but it had not yet penetrated 

 to its shady depths, which still sparkled with white frost. I did not 

 at first recognize the large plump birds, 33 of them I counted, perched 

 in the tops of two tall sycamores, evidently enjoying their morning 

 sun bath. But with a glass I soon recognized them as pigeons, saw 

 the white crescent on the neck, and, as they flew, marked them as 

 bandtails, from the bands on the broad square tails. This was one 

 of the wandering, restless flocks which travel about during the 

 winter, moving from one place to another as food or fancy leads 

 them. Later I saw them flying down the arroyo in a detached flock 

 high in the air. And almost daily for some time I saw more or 

 less of them in the same arroyo on the outskirts of Pasadena. They 

 remained in the vicinity off and on until the latter part of April. 



This is one of the birds that was being rapidly killed off, as it was 

 a favorite game bird in the Pacific Coast States. It was even verging 

 toward extinction. But, fortunately, protection came in time to save 

 it and it has made a wonderful recovery. E. A. Kitchin writes to me 

 of conditions in Washington : 



The Federal protection of these birds in recent years has made wondrous 

 changes in the Puget Sound country, which always was a natural breeding 

 ground. Before this protection the pigeons had become very scarce, so much 

 so that it was even an event to see one, and these were only seen in the more 

 isolated parts. The large gulches so numerous on Pnget Sound, covered at 

 the bottom by thick alder and on the sides by small firs, form the natural 

 breeding grounds for these birds. Now, thanks to Government protection, there 

 is hardly a gulch that does not contain 50 or more pairs of breeding birds. 



Courtship. — The only note we have on the subject of the courtship 

 of the bandtail is the following by Harry S. Swarth (1904) : 



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