416 BULLETIN 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



to June 5. Indiana to Iowa: 58 records, April 4 to September 1; 

 29 records, April 30 to June 7. Texas : 89 records, February 20 to 

 September 24; 45 records, April 21 to May 28. Arizona and New 

 Mexico: 54 records, April 1 to September 2; 27 records, May 1 to 

 June 6. California: 170 records (every month but October and 

 November), January 18 to December 5; 85 records, May 6 to June 19. 



ZENAIDURA MACROURA MARGINELLA (Woodhouse) 



WESTERN MOURNING DOVE 



HABITS 



The habits of the western mourning dove are so much like those of 

 the eastern race that there is very little to be added to the excellent 

 life history of the latter contributed by Doctor Tyler. 



The western race ranges from Manitoba and Oklahoma westward. 

 Being largely an inhabitant of the open plains and more arid regions, 

 it averages slightly paler in coloration, with the upper parts more 

 grayish, and slightly larger than the eastern race. 



Courtship. — Frank F. Gander has noted some aggressiveness on the 

 part of the female, on which he has sent me the following notes : 



On April 7, 1927, I watched a pair of doves mate. The male flew to a bare 

 limb and was closely followed by the female, who pressed close to him and 

 reached up with her beak as if begging for food. She also fluttered her wings a 

 little and squatted low to the branch. The male seemed inattentive at first, but 

 gradually began to pay more attention, billing with her as if feeding, but there 

 was none of the straining of regurgitation. After a few moments of this, with 

 the female continuing to beg and remaining in a squatting posture, the act of 

 copulation took place. The wings of the male were slightly raised and used to 

 maintain his balance. After mating, there was no strutting flight as in the 

 pigeon, but the two birds calmly resumed their respective places on the limb 

 and, beyond a slight craning of necks and peering about, showed no signs of 

 having been affected. In a few moments the female again made advances 

 toward her mate and the billing took place, but the act of mating was not 

 repeated before the birds flew away 



Nesting. — Mr. Gander has found nests as high as 40 feet in cotton- 

 wood and eucalyptus trees, and he says in his notes : 



Many years ago I found a set of eggs on a piece of loose bark that had 

 become lodged in the branches of a large tree. The only additions to this 

 site were two sticks, which were crossed, and the eggs were in the angle 

 thus formed. In southern California, especially, the doves use a nest over 

 and over again, and as some additional material is carried before each set 

 of eggs, it often grows to a rather substantial nest. 



On April 27, 1927, I saw an adult dove brooding a set of two eggs in 

 the same nest with a well-grown young one. I have observed this on other 

 occasions but have no further data. 



George Finlay Simmons (1925) says that in Texas the nest is 

 placed " rarely on leaning corn-stalks, rail fences, tops of rock fences, 



