BAND-TAILED PIGEON 355 



have mentioned ground nests, as have several more recent, but scarcely trust- 

 worthy, accounts from Oregon and Washington ; but there is no late evidence 

 of the ground nesting habit in California. In a general way the nest resembles 

 that of the Mourning Dove, save that it is considerably larger, and sometimes 

 proportionately thicker. It is a crude structure, a mere pile of oak and other 

 twigs, so loosely arranged that attempts to remove the mass often result in its 

 falling to pieces. The average diameter is six or eight inches, while the thick- 

 ness in two recorded instances was one and four inches, respectively. Some- 

 times as few as sixteen or eighteen twigs are all that go to make up the nest 

 and again there may be more than a hundred. The twigs range from a 

 sixteenth to a quarter of an inch in diameter and are of various lengths. They 

 are laid across one another, with little or no weaving, forming a platform with 

 numerous interstitial spaces. A slight lining of pine needles was found in one 

 nest. As Gilman well says, it is a marvel how an egg can be kept warm enough 

 to hatch while resting on such an airy platform in the cool air of a high alti- 

 tude. The nest site, which is almost always on top of a large horizontal limb, 

 seems to be so selected that the incubating bird may flush directly and rapidly 

 from the nest when danger threatens. 



There is some evidence to indicate that the band-tailed pigeon 

 occasionally nests on the ground. Major Bendire (1892) quotes 

 O. B. Johnson, referring to Oregon, as saying : " They nest in vari- 

 ous situations, much like the common Dove, Z. carolinensis. I found 

 one of leaves and moss beside a tree, placed on the ground between 

 two roots; another one upon an old stump that had been split and 

 broken about 8 feet from the ground; another was in the top of a 

 fir (A. grandis), and was built of twigs laid upon the dense flat 

 limb of the tree, about 180 feet from the ground." This statement, 

 he says, is confirmed by Doctor Cooper, as follows : " In June they 

 lay two white eggs, about the size of those of the house pigeon, on 

 the ground, near streams or openings, and without constructing 

 any nests." A similar statement is made by Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock 

 (1904). 



Although the band-tailed pigeon usually nests in widely scattered 

 pairs, the following account of an Arizona colony, by F. H. Fowler 

 (1903), is interesting: 



When the breeding season draws near, they betake themselves to sheltered 

 places among the lower mountains, and nest in scattered communities, or 

 as I have seen in several cases, a pair will nest apart from the others. One 

 of the largest breeding communities I noted was in a little pocket in the 

 mountains, about five miles south of Fort Huachuca ; this little place was at the 

 head of a short canyon, and was indeed an ideal spot for birds, as it was 

 well wooded and watered. Here a flock of about thirty-five pairs of band-tails 

 nested in a scattered rookery, probably not averaging a nest to every three or 

 four acres at the most thickly populated part ; and a great majority of the nests 

 were even farther apart than this. The nests in this colony were all placed 

 on the forks of low horizontal limbs of live oaks usually not more than twelve 

 feet up or less than nine, and in no case did I find more than one egg or squab 

 in a nest. The nests were all of that very simple dove-like construction 

 consisting of a few sticks placed on a fork of a branch. 



