RED-BILLED PIGEON 365 



From the specimens taken I learned it was only the males that make this sound. 

 At this time the birds perch upon some dead or bare limb, usually at some 

 elevation. They are frequently seen fluttering spirally with short wing-beats 

 or sailing slowly over some clearing, and then an entirely different note is 

 uttered, at short intervals, hard to describe, but which could be called a sort of 

 hoarse, guttural croak, sounded for a sustained period. 



Fall— Brewster (1902) says: 



At San Jose del Cabo large flocks were observed in September passing south- 

 ward. Mr. Frazar believes that the majority left Lower California that season 

 before winter set in, although he saw a few on November 15 along the road 

 between San Jose and Miraflores and others at San Jose del Rancho December 

 18-25. None were found on the Sierra de la Laguna between November 27 

 and December 2. 



COLUMBA PLAVIROSTRIS FLAVIROSTRIS Wagler 

 RED-BILLED PIGEON 



HABITS 



The large, handsome red-billed pigeon, locally known as " blue 

 pigeon," is a Central American species that extends its range into 

 the United States only in a narrow belt of heavily wooded bottom- 

 lands along the valley of the Rio Grande in Texas and perhaps as 

 far west as the Graham Mountains in southern Arizona, where Major 

 Bendire (1892) reports the capture of three specimens. I first met 

 this pigeon in the heavy timber near the Resaca de la Palma, near 

 Brownsville, Tex. This forest of ebony, huisache, mesquite, and 

 hackberry trees, with its thick undergrowth of thorny shrubs and its 

 tangles of vines, has been more fully described under the chachalaca. 

 This pigeon is a resident in this region for about 10 months each 

 year. George B. Sennett (1879) quotes Dr. T. M. Finley as saying 

 that at Hidalgo these pigeons were " first noticed on January 24th in 

 flocks ; about the middle of February they were seen in the woods in 

 pairs, and cooing. The last seen of them in 1877 was the latter 

 part of November. These Pigeons were seen several times consorting 

 with tame Pigeons in the ebony-trees in the neighborhood of the 

 village of Hidalgo." Dr. J. C. Merrill (1878) says: "This large 

 and handsome pigeon is found in abundance during the summer 

 months, arriving in flocks of fifteen or twenty about the last week in 

 February. Though not very uncommon about Fort Brown, it is 

 much more plentiful a few miles higher up the river, where the dense 

 woods offer it the shade and retirement it seeks." 



Nesting. — On May 27, 1923, near Resaca de la Palma, we found two 

 nests of the red-billed pigeon in the heavily timbered thickets. One 

 was about 10 feet up in a tangle of vines and saplings ; it was a small, 

 frail nest of small twigs, barely strong enough to support the weight 



