ZENAIDA DOVE 417 



or ledges in cliffs. Occasionally old nests of the gray-tailed cardinal 

 or the western mockingbird are repaired and used ; one bird with eggs 

 was found occupying an old nest of the Audubon caracara." 



Eggs. — The 2 eggs, rarely 1 or 3, of the western mourning dove 

 are pure white like those of the eastern bird. The measurements of 

 48 eggs average 28 by 20.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measure 31 by 21.5, 30 by 22, and 25 by 19.5 millimeters*. 



Behavior. — Simmons (1925) writes: 



In desert country, from Austin westward, water holes and the cool shade 

 of the narrowly timbered prairie creeks can be located by watching during 

 mid-day the direct lines of flight of the swiftly moving doves, which come 

 from miles across the prairie, since they frequently nest a long distance from 

 water. Hunters make use of this water-seeking habit of the doves by hiding 

 near a water hole at dawn or dusk and shooting the birds as they drop in to 

 water preparatory to leaving or roosting in the nearby trees where they spend 

 the night. 



ZENAIDA ZENAIDA ZENAIDA (Bonaparte) 



ZENAIDA DOVE 

 HABITS 



On April 24, 1903, while crawling on all fours under the thorny 

 tangle of tropical shrubs and vines on Indian Key, one of the lower 

 Florida Keys, I saw several small doves, with white in the wings 

 and tail, flitting along ahead of me near the ground or breaking 

 out and flying away over the tops of the bushes. The vegetation was 

 too thick to shoot them or even to get a good look at them, but I have 

 always suspected that they were Zenaida doves, as this is the key 

 where Audubon (1840) mentions finding them. Here is what he 

 says about it : 



The Zenaida Dove is a transient visitor of the Keys of East Florida. Some of 

 the fishermen think that it may be met with there at all seasons, but my ob- 

 servations induce me to assert the contrary. It appears in the islands near 

 Indian Key about the 15th of April, continues to increase in numbers until 

 the month of October, and then returns to the West India Islands, whence it 

 originally came. They begin to lay their eggs about the first of May. The 

 males reach the Keys on which they breed before the females, and are heard 

 cooing as they ramble about in search of mates, more than a week before the 

 latter make their appearance. In autumn, however, when they take their de- 

 parture, males, females, and young set out in small parties together. 



Dr. Thomas Barbour (1923) says of its haunts in Cuba: 



This wide-ranging Pigeon is more shy and retiring than the Rabiche, and 

 more solitary. Nevertheless it is found in varying numbers throughout the 

 island. Its noisy flight is often startling. It is found rarely in deep forest, 

 though Brooks and I have taken it in the high woods about the Cienaga. It is 

 far more characteristic of open savanna lands and the shady second-growth 

 manigua along water-courses in pastures and the outer boundaries of cultivated 



