46 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



in winter. The nesting usually occupied four or 

 five weeks. The female, when sitting, never 

 left the nest until the flight of males returned, 

 when she slipped away, just as her mate reached 

 the nest. Thus the eggs were kept covered all 

 the time. The adult birds never ate the nuts and 

 acorns in the immediate vicinity of the nesting 

 place, but went to a distance for their food, and 

 left the mast in the neighborhood for the young 

 to feed on when they came out of the nest. It 

 is said that for miles around there were no cater- 

 pillars or inchworms in the oak woods for several 

 years after a nesting, as the adults secured prac- 

 tically all of them for the young, thereby protect- 

 ing the forests against their insect enemies. 

 W'hen the young were first pushed out of the 

 nest by the parents, they went to the ground, 

 and fed mainly in the lower parts of the woods 

 until they became expert in flying. They passed 

 over the ground, the lower ranks continually 

 flying over those in front, scratching out all the 

 edible material, those flying overhead striking 

 otT the nuts as they flew by. The young birds 

 were able to reproduce their kind in about six 

 months. 



Chief Pokagon asserts that while the old birds 

 were feeding they always had guards on duty, 

 to give an alarm in case of danger. The watch 

 bird as it took flight beat its wings together in 

 quick succession, with a sound like the roll of a 

 snare drum. Quick as thought each bird re- 

 peated the alarm with a thundering sound, as 

 the flock struggled to rise, leading a novice to 

 imagine that a cyclone was coming. 



In feeding, the birds were very voracious. 

 They scratched among the leaves and unearthed 

 every nut or acorn, sometimes almost choking 



in their efforts to swallow an unusually large 

 specimen. During the breeding season they were 

 fond of salty mud and water, and the pigeoners, 

 learning of this, were accustomed to attract the 

 birds to their death by salting down " mud beds," 

 to which the poor Pigeons flocked in multitudes, 

 and over which, when they were assembled, the 

 pigeoners threw their nets. 



The food of the Pigeons consisted mainly of 

 vegetable matter, except for the grasshoppers, 

 caterpillars and other insects, worms, snails, etc., 

 which they ate, and which they fed to their 

 young. Acorns, beechnuts and chestnuts, with 

 pine and hemlock seeds, were among their prin- 

 cipal staples of supply. They also fed on the 

 seeds of the elm, maple and other forest trees. 

 Buckwheat, hempseed, Indian corn and other 

 grains, cherries, mulberries, hollyberries, hack- 

 berries, wild strawberries, raspberries and 

 huckleberries, and tender shoots of vegetation, 

 all attracted them. They sometimes went to the 

 Barren Grounds in the far North in vast num- 

 bers, to feed on blueberries. They often de- 

 scended upon the fall-sown wheat and rye fields 

 in such numbers that the farmers had to watch 

 their fields, or lose their crops. Oats and 

 peas were favorite foods. No doubt they also 

 fed largely on the seeds of weeds, as the Mourn- 

 ing Doves, Bob-whites, and many other terres- 

 trial feeders do ; but I find no record of this. 

 They were fond of currants, cranberries, and 

 poke berries, and no doubt of many other kinds 

 of berries, and rose hips. We know little of their 

 food habits, for no scientific investigation of 

 their food ever was made. 



Edward Howe Forbush, in Game Birds, 



IVild-Fozvl and Shore Birds. 



MOURNING DOVE 



Zenaidura macroura carolinensis (Linmcus) 



A. O. U. Number 316 See Color Plate 42 



Other Names. — Carolina Dove ; Wild Dove ; Turtle 

 Dove ; Dove. 



General Description. — Length, 12}/ inches. Pre- 

 vailing color above, grayish-blue; below, reddish-fawn. 

 Tail, longer than wing, strongly graduated, consisting 

 of 14 relatively narrow and tapering feathers. 



Color. — Adult Male : Forehead and over eye, fawn 

 color usually paler on front of forehead, passing into 

 dull slate-gray on back of head; hindneck, brownish- 



gray, the lateral portions (sometimes also lower por- 

 tion) highly glossed with metallic purplish-bronze; 

 back, shoulders, upper tail-coverts, wing-coverts, and 

 inner secondaries, grayish-brown ; the rump similar but 

 usually grayer, passing into slate-grayish laterally ; these 

 secondaries, usually also greater coverts, with a number 

 of rather large square and roundish black spots ; outer 

 secondaries, primaries, primary coverts, neutral-gray, 

 the primaries narrowly edged with white, these edgings 



