THE MOURNING DOVE AS A GAME BIRD 7 



woll below 3}< ounces in weight, and of those that did exceed this 

 minimum, nearly half were well under 3% ounces. Of 32 immature 

 doves taken on September 3, at Walnut Grove, Ga., an even 25 

 percent weighed less than 3K ounces, and about half of the others 

 weighed only slightly more. Almost identical figures apply to a 

 third Georgia bag of 34 young birds killed at Social Circle, Walton 

 County, on September 15. 



During the shooting season of 1944 several Alabama wardens gave 

 particular attention to the size of the doves they found in the bags of 

 hunters. Thirty-two lots, totaling 231 birds, were examined from 

 September 16 to 25. Of these, 129 were immature, and this caused 

 the wardens to add as comments to their reports: "Very small, and 

 full of pinfeathers;" "all small;" and "too small to eat." 



Sports writers for some of the southern newspapers have begun to 

 give attention to this situation, the following quotations from one of 

 them being typical: "The bulk of the first kills last season were im- 

 mature birds, of such small size as to scarcely be worth dressing," 

 and "* * * reported kills lately have had a majority of young 

 birds, many still in the pinfeather state." 



NATURAL MORTALITY 



In addition to the annual toll of the hunters, the mourning dove 

 suffers losses from a variety of causes, most important of which is the 

 weather. Flimsy structure renders the nest particularly vulnerable 

 to high winds. During a 3-year study of this species in Cass County, 

 Iowa, storms caused 25 percent of all nesting losses, which exceeded 

 those from all other causes. Losses due to adverse weather are not 

 confined to the breeding season, as in January 1940, when snow and 

 freezing weather extended south to the Gulf coast, covering the chief 

 wintering grounds of the mourning dove and shutting off its food 

 supply, the birds starved to death by the thousands, and they were 

 so reduced in numbers that drastic regulatory action was required 

 to give them a chance to recover. 



As nesting sites vary from depressions in fields to limbs of trees 

 50 or 60 feet above the ground, incubating and brooding birds as well 

 as their eggs and young are subject to attack by a variety of predators. 

 Although the total losses to predators are considerable, no single 

 enemy is responsible for serious depredations. 



MANAGEMENT 



In view of the difficulties of mourning dove management, it is 

 proper to ask: "What is the remedy?" The needs of the bird are 

 easily stated, but to satisfy them by administrative action unfor- 

 tunately is a problem. 



In that region lying south of the northern boundaries of North 

 Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, the evidence indicates 

 that sport shooting (fig. 5) should not be permitted before October 1. 



In some parts of the Southeast it is claimed that the mourning 

 doves leave shortly after September 1, This claim is even made for 

 localities on the Gulf of Mexico despite the fact that these birds do 

 not at any time go south of those shores. Possibly dove flights may 

 pass through some of these areas shortly after September 1, but even 



