410 BULLETIN 162, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



then downward. The other three notes are either all on one pitch or slightly 

 slurred downward. Lengths of songs vary from 3 to 4% seconds. Usually one 

 bird sings a single song and repeats it over and over in just the same manner ; 

 but I once recorded five different songs from a single bird. 



Craig (1911) has reported the results of an exhaustive study of 

 the bird in confinement. The following are the outstanding features 

 of his article. He describes the song, which he terms the " perch 

 coo " essentially as Saunders does, and adds : 



When delivering his song, the mourning dove does not perform any dance 

 or gesture, as some birds do. He invariably stands still when cooing; even 

 when he coos in the midst of pursuing the female he stops in the chase, stands 

 immovable until the coo is completed, and then runs on. His attitude is, 

 to be sure, very definite, the neck somewhat arched and the whole body rigid ; 

 but the impression it gives one is, not that the bird is striking an attitude, but 

 that he is simply holding every muscle tense in the effort of a difficult 

 performance. 



The female also utters the perch-coo, though less often than the male, and 

 in a thin, weak voice and staccato tones, which, as compared with the male's 

 song, form so ludicrous a caricature that on first hearing it I burst out 

 laughing. 



To this commonly heard note he adds two others; the nest call 

 of which he says : " This call is much shorter than the song, and 

 much fainter, so that the field observer may fail ever to hear it. Its 

 typical form is of three notes, a low, a high, and a low, thus some- 

 what resembling the first bar of the song, but differing in that the 

 three notes do not glide into one another, there being a clear break 

 from each note to the next " ; and the copulation note, which " is 

 given by both the male and female, immediately after coition; in 

 the mourning dove it is a faint growling note, repeated two to four 

 times with rests between. So far as I have seen, the mourning 

 doves, throughout the utterance of these sounds, keep the bill wide 

 open." 



Field marks. — The mourning dove in the field appears as a long, 

 slim, gray-brown bird with small, nodding head, whistling wings, and 

 long, pointed tail. The sparrow hawk resembles the dove very closely 

 in flight, but it has strong, heavy shoulders, a larger head, and 

 squarely tipped tail. The little ground dove of the Southern States 

 is instantly distinguished from the mourning dove by its stumpy 

 tail and the flash of bright color under the wing. 



Enemies. — Harold C. Bryant (1926) speaks thus of the dove's 

 enemies : 



Apart from man, the dove has other enemies. The duck hawk is swift 

 enough to overtake the dove, and this bird is probably the dove's most dreaded 

 avian foe. Other predatory species take a toll during the nesting season. 

 Its rapid flight frequently brings the dove in violent contact with telephone 

 wires, and many birds die annually from this cause. Rodent-poisoning opera- 

 tions have in recent years been responsible for the death of many doves; for, 



