THE MOURNING DOVE AS A GAME BIRD 5 



Results of studios that have been made in North CaroHna, lowa,^ 

 and in noitheastei-ii Texas all parallel the Alabama findings. In 

 1941 at two banding points in North Carolina fledglings were banded 

 in their nests as late as September 27 and Oetober 4; over a 3-year 

 period in Iowa 21.9 percent of the young left the nest after September 

 1, and 2.3 percent after October 1; and in Throckmorton County, 

 Tex., young doves were observed to leave their nests as late as 

 September 25.^ Similar data are available from other southern 



Figure 3.— Mourning dove brooding young in the nest. Building the nest, incubating 

 the eggs, and caring for the squabs require a period slightly longer than one month. 

 [Photographed by Allen M. Pearson, September 2, 1938.] 



2 Ecology and Management of the Mourning Dove, Zenaidura Tnoerowra (Linn ), in Cass County, Iowa, 

 by H. Elliott McClure, Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station Research Bulletm 310, pp. 356-415, 36 



*^^AVelim[uary re^port on the status of the Momning Dove in Throckmorton County, Texas, by Alfred 

 S. Jackson. 1942. [Unpublished.] 



