BAND-TAILED PIGEON 357 



After remaining perched quietly for awhile, the old bird then walked along the 

 branch lengthwise to the trunk, hopped across, fluttering some, to the base of 

 the nest branch and walked out on it to the nest. 



Immediately a commotion began — the young one fluttering its wings spasmod- 

 ically, the old one, not plainly seen because of intervening foliage, evidently 

 feeding it. The process lasted fully three minutes, when the old bird flew di- 

 rectly off from the nest, out into space from a cliff: base, and circling, was seen 

 to alight at far distance on a middle branch of a dead tree. We would have 

 timed the feeding process if we had had any notion of its lasting so long. 

 After feeding, the youngster crouched down motionless and could be seen 

 plainly no more. When being fed, its upraised, fluttering wings showed the 

 quills to be only an inch or so long; it could have been no more than ten days 

 old. 



Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1904) says that the squab is "fed on a 

 thin milky fluid, by regurgitation, for 20 days."' 



Plumages. — I have never seen a nestling band-tailed pigeon, but 

 Mrs. Wheelock (1904) saj^s that its " yellow skin is covered with the 

 sparse, cottony, white down." The juvenal plumage is much like that 

 of the adult, but it lacks the white collar and the iridescent metallic 

 colors on the neck; the vinaceous tints are wholly lacking; and the 

 feathers of the breast and wing coverts are narrowly edged with 

 whitish, giving a slightly scaly effect. Molting birds are scarce in 

 collections, but apparently young birds have a complete molt during 

 the first fall, which produces a practically adult plumage. I have 

 been unable to trace the molts of adults, but a complete molt prob- 

 ably occurs, as it does in European pigeons, during summer and fall ; 

 this may begin as early as May or June and end as late as October 

 or November. 



Food. — Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) have published a very 

 full account of the food of the band-tailed pigeon, from which I can 

 include only a condensed summary. As their food consists mainly 

 of nuts and berries, which are intermittent crops, the pigeons find it 

 necessary to wander about considerably, congregating in large num- 

 bers where food is abundant and deserting these same localities dur- 

 ing seasons of scarcity. Acorns seem to be their chief food; prob- 

 ably all the oaks are patronized, but mainly the live oaks, golden 

 oak, and black oak; the acorn crop lasts through a long season in 

 fall and winter. The acorns are swallowed whole and form an 

 attractive food supply in the fall. They resort at times to the apple- 

 like fruits of certain species of manzanita, eating them from the time 

 they are first formed and green until late in fall, when they are fully 

 ripe. Early in the fall they feed on the fruit of the coffeeberry, 

 elderberry, and chokecherry. In winter they have the toyon, or 

 Christmasberry, and when the nut and fruit crops become exhausted 

 they feed on the flower and leaf buds of the same plants, such as 

 manzanita and oak buds. Early in spring sycamore balls are fre- 

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