MEXICAN GROUND DOVE 441 



or available water in any form. As a consequence its occurrence is locally 

 concentrated. 



The birds breed near open water. They carry their demand for its proximity 

 so far that, assuming my notes to represent a fair average, four-fifths of their 

 nests are within fifty feet of a place to drink. I was surprised when this fact 

 began to develop and I found myself looking about for water whenever I flushed 

 one of the doves from eggs or young. Seldom, indeed, was it not close at hand. 

 There is a marked contrast here with the birds of southern Sonora. There they 

 abound on the open mesas and breed freely twenty to fifty miles or more from 

 water. 



Courtship. — W. Leon Dawson (1923) writes: 



Business-like always, the ground dove is not less diligent in courtship. The 

 call note oo woo vk, oo woo uk, sounds a little hard and unromantic in com- 

 parison with that of the larger doves. The sound is very penetrating, but it is 

 so low-pitched that some people fail to observe it. The singer is discreet, and 

 the sound usually ceases upon the appearance of the ever-despicable human. 

 Yet at close quarters with his lady love, the workaday swain knows how to be 

 tender. At such times he trails after his enamorata with trembling wings and 

 cries kool kooul. The daily visit to the drinking pool is the recognized occasion 

 for amours. 



Nesting. — A typical nest of the Mexican ground dove, which w r e 

 found and photographed in the San Pedro Valle}^, Ariz., on May 17, 

 1922, is shown on Plate 93. It was found while exploring a narrow 

 strip of small willows along the banks of an irrigation ditch. It was 

 well made, for a dove's nest, of coarse dry grasses and placed in the 

 main crotch of a small willow, 6 feet above the ground. The two 

 eggs in it were fresh. 



Herbert Brown, as quoted by Major Bendire (1892), says: 



They lay two eggs, and nest in trees or bushes. A nest found June 11, 1887, 

 was constructed of a few dead twigs and grass placed on a limb of a willow 

 near the ground ; the female was on the nest. One found June 19 was also in a 

 willow tree 20 feet from the ground and out on a limb 15 feet from the body 

 of the tree, and made of a few dried stalks of alfalfa. It contained two eggs 

 and the female was on the nest. A third nest, found June 26, containing two 

 eggs, was made of long stems of dry grass and placed about ten feet from the 

 ground. Whether this was a first laying I can not say. The nests are almost 

 flat. I do not think I ever saw a cavity more than half an inch deep. 



Major Bendire (1892) says further: 



All of the nests seen by me were placed on bushes or on trees, from 3 to 21 

 feet off the ground, not a single one was found on the ground. 



The first one found, on May 30, was placed in a syringa bush, about 3 feet from 

 the ground. The little platform of small twigs and grass stems was very 

 slight, about 4% inches in diameter, and almost perfectly flat. The eggs were 

 fresh. 



Other nests, subsequently noticed, were placed in various trees and bushes, 

 mostly in mesquite thickets, a few in willows, and two in walnut trees. A nest 

 found July 28 was placed in a tree of this kind, about 20 feet from the ground. 

 The tree was leaning, and some young sprouts had grown out from the main 

 trunk, among which the nest was placed. The eggs were fresh, probably a 



