598 GAME BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA 



monly believed that two, and in some instances three, broods are raised 

 in a season. There is no conclusive evidence at hand to substantiate 

 either this, or the contention of some sportsmen that certain of the 

 birds nest successively at high and then lower altitudes. 



While in the nest the squabs are fed on material regurgitated by 

 the parents, the so-called "pigeon's milk." Judd (1901, p. 431) 

 reports that examination of five squabs of this species showed that 

 their food comprised thirty per cent of entire seeds of plants and 

 the balance consisted of irregular endosperm fragments of the same 

 kinds of seeds. The plants represented are those species usually 

 included in the term ' ' weed ' ' ; namely, oxalis, spurge, ragweed, sun- 

 flower, and pigeon grass. Adults collected during the same season had 

 eaten all of the species of seeds identified in the food of the nestlings, 

 as well as some others. The adults brood their young sometimes even 

 after they are fully fledged. Although laying but two eggs the doves 

 are remarkably successful in hatcliing them and rearing both squabs, 

 and this together with the possibility that two broods are reared in 

 a season may in part account for the dove's ability to maintain itself 

 despite the heavy slaughter during the hunting season. 



An examination of the food of the Mourning Dove shows that weed 

 seeds form the principal item of its diet throughout the year. Beal 

 (1904, pp. 6-7) in an examination of 237 stomachs of this bird from 

 all parts of the country found that weed seeds comprised 64 per cent 

 of the food for the year, and that the percentage did not vary greatly 

 in different months. The remaining 32 per cent of vegetable food 

 consisted of grains of various sorts (wheat, oats, barley, rye, buck- 

 wheat and corn), but of these the only grain taken in good condition, 

 that is, apparently fresh, was wheat, which seemed to be preferred. 

 By far the greater amount of this grain was waste, gleaned from 

 stubble fields. Such grain has little or no value, and the amount taken 

 by all the doves in California is negligible when the total amount 

 of grain lost in harvesting is considered. The animal food taken by 

 doves is chiefly insects, and constitutes less than one per cent of their 

 total diet. It is probably for the most part taken accidentally. 



Enormous numbers of seeds are taken by doves. Three counts were 

 made by the Bureau of Biological Survey and showed 6,400, 7,500 

 and 9,200 seeds, respectively, in the stomaclis and crops of three 

 birds. A large percentage of the seeds taken are those of garden 

 and farm weed pests. "In certain parts of California the habit of 

 feeding on the seeds of turkey mullein {Eremocarpus sctigcnis) is 

 so well known that a botanist, on inquiring how he could collect some 

 seeds of this plant, was advised to shoot a few doves and open their 

 crops" (T. S. Palmer, 1900, p. 17). All food material is ground 

 into small fragments in the bird's musc\dar gizzard ; hence the dove is 



