364 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



brown and appear dead, but a few days after the first rain, the leaves gradually 

 grow green again. 



There are a few pine trees, mostly pinyons, scattered among the oaks in 

 some parts, but only in one instance did I find a pigeon's nest in a pine. This 

 was a well built nest six feet above the ground, against the trunk where a hori- 

 zontal limb grew out. One nest was found on a frond of a leaning fan palm 

 tree. The nest is as a rule carelessly made, of a few coarse twigs, with no 

 nest lining. 



A nest collected for me by W. W. Brown, in the Sierra de la Laguna, 

 on June 14, 1913, containing one egg, was described as a frail plat- 

 form-like structure of sticks, built near the extremity of a branch, in 

 a pine tree about 40 feet from the ground. An egg in the United 

 States National Museum, taken by M. A. Frazar, near Pearce's ranch, 

 on July 18, 1887, was presented by Mr. Brewster; it was taken from 

 a nest composed of a few sticks, 18 feet up, on a broken upright branch 

 of a giant cactus. 



Eggs. — One egg seems to be the almost invariable rule with Viosca's 

 pigeon. If two eggs are ever laid, it must be very rarely, for in more 

 than 25 nests examined by Mr. Lamb and 8 or 10 by Mr. Brown, 

 only one egg or young was found. The egg is pure white, like that 

 of the band-tailed pigeon. The measurements of 25 eggs average 

 39.7 by 27.5 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 

 43.2 by 28.5, 41.4 by 29, 36.7 by 26.9, and 38.1 by 26.4 millimeters. 



Food. — Mr. Lamb (1926) says: "Acorns, wild grapes, pinyon nuts, 

 and a sort of wild fig were, in my experience, their only food in the 

 summer." 



Behavior. — Again Lamb writes: 



At one of my camps in the Victoria Mountains, my work table was placed 

 directly under a large live-oak tree which bore an abundant crop of acorns. 

 This was a great attraction to the pigeons as well as to numerous Narrow- 

 fronted Acorn-storing Woodpeckers. It was a marvel to me how such a large 

 bird as a pigeon could alight in this tree, even on its slenderest branches, with- 

 out the least audible flapping of its wings; often I would be unaware of a 

 pigeon's presence until it was made known to me by the woodpeckers. The 

 pigeons and woodpeckers, it appears, are inherent enemies. Let a pigeon alight 

 in this tree, and if a woodpecker is near-by, the latter immediately, with 

 loud cries, sets upon and drives the pigeon away, which departs with a great 

 flapping of wings. In no case have I seen a pigeon try to defend itself, and 

 one was never seen to take the part of the aggressor. When attacked, a pigeon 

 flies to a near-by tree and often, as soon as the woodpecker's back is turned, 

 so to speak, the pigeon is back again in the oak tree, only to have the same 

 thing happen again. It is lucky for the pigeons that woodpeckers are not 

 always on guard, else they would get but few acorns. 



Voice. Again he writes: 



The first bird voices one hears in the early morning in the live-oak region 

 are those of the Narrow-fronted Woodpeckers, closely followed by the Viosca 

 Pigeons, whose mellow tchoo-ichoo (first note short, second long and slightly 

 lower) sounds almost human, jvs if someone were trying to attract attention. 



