viosca's pigeon 363 



COLUMBA FASCIATA VIOSCAE Brewster 

 VIOSCA'S PIGEON 



HABITS 



This pale race of the band-tailed pigeon was described by William 

 Brewster (1888), based on a study of a series of more than 100 

 specimens collected in southern Lower California and named in 

 honor of Mr. Viosca, the United States consul at La Paz. He gives 

 it the following characters : " Similar to G. fasciata but with the tail 

 band wanting or only faintly indicated, the general coloring lighter 

 and more uniform, the vinaceous tints, especially on the head, neck, 

 and breast, much fainter and more or less replaced by bluish ash." 



As to its distribution (1902), he says: 



This pigeon seems to be strictly confined to the Cape Region, for neither Mr. 

 Bryant nor Mr. Anthony has succeeded in finding it in the central or northern 

 portions of the Peninsula where true fasciata is also apparently wanting. 



Chester C. Lamb (1926) writes: 



The Viosca Pigeon is, with one exception, known to occur only in the Victoria 

 Mountains, sometimes known as the Sierra de la Laguna, or in the adjacent 

 foothills. The exception is Brewster's statement that Mr. Frazar saw large 

 numbers in San Jose del Cabo in September " passing southward." During 

 my own two years' residence in the Cape district, however, this bird was not 

 seen outside the mountainous district above indicated. I very much doubt the 

 pigeons leaving Lower California at all, as implied by Brewster on Frazar's 

 report. 



I became acquainted with the Viosca Pigeon July 5, 1923, when I made my 

 first trip to the Laguna Mountains, and in the next month found them abundant. 

 The following year parts of four rnqnths were spent in their range, and I had 

 ample opportunity to study and observe this isolated race of pigeon. It was 

 common throughout the mountains, ranging from an altitude of 1,500 feet to 

 the tops, some 6,500 feet. At the lower levels the birds are found in the 

 canyons, where wild grapes and another native fruit grow ; but the type of 

 country they like best, and their real home, is the live-oak region of the higher 

 valleys and canyons. These birds are swift and powerful fliers and it would 

 not take them long to travel for their food, either to the pinyon pines above or 

 to the wild grapes and figs below, whenever they might wish to vary their 

 acorn diet. 



Nesting. — The nesting season is very variable or very much pro- 

 longed. Reliable observers have found this pigeon nesting in Janu- 

 ary, February, April, May, June, July, August, September, and 

 December. Mr. Lamb (1926) says of its nesting sites: 



The majority of the numerous nests I examined were in live-oak trees, usu- 

 ally situated on the forks of the larger horizontal limbs, and placed from 10 

 to 20 feet above the ground. Some nests were also found placed among the 

 smaller branches and near their extremities, but this was exceptional. A 

 very few nests were found in a small species of white-oak tree that grows on 

 the hillsides. This oak is peculiar in that in the dry season the leaves turn 



