354 BULLETIN 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



During the breeding season the male bird is fond of sitting in some elevated 

 position, usually the top of a tall dead pine, giving utterance, at frequent 

 intervals, to a loud coo, more like the note of an owl than a pigeon, which can 

 be heard at a considerable distance; while occasionally he launches himself into 

 the air with wings and tail stiffly outspread, describes a large circle back 

 to his starting point, uttering meanwhile a peculiar wheezing noise impossible 

 of description. I had supposed that this noise was made by the outspread 

 wings, but a male bird which Mr. Howard had in his possession for some time 

 gave utterance to the same sound whenever angered or excited, evidently 

 by means of his vocal organs, as we had ample opportunity of observing. 



Nesting. — Mr. Kitchin, who has had considerable experience with 

 this pigeon in Washington, contributes the following : 



The flocks arrive the latter part of March or early in April and at once seek 

 the gulches, where they feed on the seeds of the alder. They apparently have 

 a rather prolonged breeding season, lasting from April through June. The 

 nesting sites are mainly in the dark fir trees, where their nest of dead fir twigs 

 is placed near the trunk and generally in the lower branches, averaging prob- 

 ably 20 feet from the ground. Occasionally, however, the nest is found in 

 an alder and sometimes on the top of a thick birch overhanging the hillside. 



When approached the brooding bird has a habit of standing erect in the center 

 of the nest and by doing so becomes very conspicuous. I have read of these 

 birds carrying their egg when disturbed, and although I have flushed many birds 

 none showed any inclination to take the egg with it. Knowing where an 

 occupied nest was, I have approached quietly to perhaps 6 feet before the bird 

 flushed, and at other times I have rushed, in a startling way, taking her by sur- 

 prise, but in neither case was the egg removed. 



The nest is somewhat loosely made and entirely of dead twigs and, though 

 it is not in any way cupshaped it certainly is saucershaped, and the roughness 

 of the twigs prevents the egg from rolling in the nest. One can tell from 

 below whether the nest contains an egg or a squab, as the brooding bird will 

 stand in the center of the nest, astride the egg, while if a squab she will be 

 standing on the rim. 



The birds are fond of their old nesting sites and are insistent in using the 

 site selected. They not only come back to the same tree but will use the same 

 limb as that used the previous year, even if the first nest has been disturbed. 

 On one occasion the bird selected a hanging bush on the hillside and built her 

 nest near the top. The egg and nest were taken and she at once built another 

 on the same site and raised her young. The following year she was again in 

 the bush, sitting on a slightly incubated egg. This set I took, and by July she 

 had another nest and egg, which were taken, and I was much surprised, in 

 passing later in the season, to find a third nest in which she had probably raised 

 her young to maturity. 



Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) give the most comprehensive 

 account available of the nesting habits of this bird in California, 

 from which I quote as follows: 



Nearly all authentic reports from California agree in stating that the Band- 

 tailed Pigeon nests in trees — almost invariably in black or golden oaks — at 

 heights ranging from eight to thirty feet above the ground. As exceptions, 

 Littlejohn (MS) found a nest in San Mateo County in a Douglas spruce; and 

 in Marin County, J. Mailliard found a nest in a California lilac (Ceanothus 

 thyrsiflorus) overhanging a steep slope. Some early reports from this State 



