BAND-TAILED PIGEON 277 



As the big birds alighted, the air cui'rents caused by their wings and tails stirred 

 up the dust and chaff of the yard to form small whirlwinds. When feeding, the birds 

 walked about actively, their big bodies swinging from side to side as they stretched 

 their short legs in endeavoring to move quickly. Usually the head was held so low that 

 the back of the neck and body and tail were in one plane parallel to the ground, and 

 they would look up only when some moving object or unusual sound prompted them 

 to be on guard. Otherwise they pecked greedily at the abundant supply of grain scat- 

 tered about. One bird seemed exceptionally thick-breasted, as though it had a very full 

 crop. When in the trees a few of the birds uttered a mild tuclc-oo', not spirited; but 

 as a rule they were silent. When disturbed they arose abruptly, almost simultaneously, 

 with a great clapping of wings, displaying spread tails. When descending to the ground 

 they often made two or three short flights, from one elevation to another lower one, 

 rather than one direct descent. 



Mr. Gabriel Souvelewsky told us that once when blasting was being 

 carried on in the Valley a flock of Band-tailed Pigeons feeding on the 

 ground in his yard would rise 3 or 4 feet at each blast and then drop back 

 again quickly as their alarm subsided. 



We did not succeed in locating any nests of the Band-tailed Pigeon. 

 Nests in other parts of California have been found in airy situations, for 

 example, on large horizontal limbs of trees where the birds could flush 

 directly at the approach of danger. It yet remains for someone to observe 

 and report an instance of nesting in the Yosemite region. The continued 

 presence of pigeons in the Valley throughout the summer months makes 

 it almost certain that they nest there. 



Acorns form the main item in the food of the Band-tailed Pigeon. We 

 often saw birds foraging in the golden oaks on the north wall of the 

 Yosemite, and several birds collected there were found to have nothing 

 but acorns in their crops. A resident of Mount Bullion told us that he 

 had shot a pigeon near that place whose crop contained 13 acorns of the 

 black oak. Other common food materials include berries of the manzanita, 

 toyon, chokeberry and coffeeberry. Grain, when available, affords attrac- 

 tive forage; they eagerly glean shelled-out kernels. This last trait works 

 to their disadvantage in those cases where strychnine-poisoned grain has 

 been put out on top of the ground to kill ground squirrels. On several 

 occasions grain so exposed in the Valley has been eaten by the pigeons 

 and some of the birds are known to have succumbed. 



People who have resided for a long time in Yosemite Valley state 

 that pigeons used to be found there in much larger numbers than now. 

 Mr. C. W. Baker said that fully 2000 were observed by him in one flock 

 some years previous to 1915. Excessive hunting in the foothill belt during 

 the winter months has probably been the direct cause of most of this 

 decrease. The pigeon is not a species that can recover rapidly from serious 

 reduction, for normally only one young bird is reared by each pair each 

 year. Variation in the available supply of food there and elsewhere 



