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Bird - Lore 



THE GROUND DOVE STRIKING WITH HER WINGS 



the highest Woodpecker's hole in the top 

 of the giant cactus. These tiny Owls are 

 quite abundant about Tucson. They 

 flit over the desert at night, catching 

 great numbers of insects; and they arc 

 especially fond of grasshoppers. 



Around Tucson, there are four kinds of 

 Doves, the White-winged, sometimes 

 called the Sonora Pigeon, the Mourning 

 Dove, the Inca, and the Mexican Ground 

 Dove. As a rule, our experience with 

 Doves in Arizona taught us that they 

 were very shy, doubtless because they 

 have long been unprotected from gunners, 

 even in the nesting-season. 



One finds a great deal of difference in 

 the individuality of birds. Two pairs of 

 Ground Doves, whose nests we found, 

 were very shy; but at a third nest we dis- 

 covered that we were able to move the 

 camera up within ten or twelve feet with- 

 out frightening away the brooding parent. 



After it had stood there a little while, we 

 slowly moved it to within four or five feet. 

 Instead of leaving her home, the Dove 

 raised her wings and spread her tail in 

 anger. She gave a fine, intense, whining 

 note, as she struck at us with her soft 

 bill. We annoyed her to the extreme by 

 putting a finger up to the edge of the nest, 

 and finally stroked her feathers. Then 

 she seemed to realize that we had no 

 intention of harming her, and let us take 

 as many pictures as we wished. 



We had a somewhat similar experience 

 in photographing the home of a Pyr- 

 rhuloxia, or Gray Cardinal. This striking 

 bird has a heavy, parrot-like, yellow beak 

 and a high crest. The male is colored 

 light rose-red around the bill and under 

 his wings. A patch of red also extends 

 from the throat down over the breast 

 One intensely warm day we photographed 

 the mother as she sat most of the time 



