Pigeons and Doves 



leaves the nest it is nourished with food brought up from the 

 parents' crops, where, mixed with a peculiar whitish fluid, it 

 passes among the credulous as "pigeon's milk." Is not this 

 the nearest approach among birds to the mammals' method of 

 feeding their young? 



Patterns of all the domestic virtues, proverbially loving, 

 gentle birds, anatomists tell us their blandness is due not to 

 the cultivation of their moral nature, but to the absence of the 

 gall-bladder! 



The Band-tailed, or White-collared Pigeon (Columba fasci- 

 ata), a large, stout species distributed over the western United 

 States and from British Columbia to Mexico, inhabits chiefly those 

 mountainous regions where acorns, its favorite food, can be 

 secured. The male has head, neck, and under parts purplish 

 wine red, fading below ; a distinct white half collar, with some 

 exquisite metallic scales on it ; his lower back, sides of body, and 

 wing linings slaty blue ; the back and shoulders lustrous dark 

 greenish brown ; yellow feet and bill; a red ring around eye; and 

 the bluish ash tail crossed at the middle with a black bar. The 

 female either lacks the white collar or it is obscure, and her gen- 

 eral coloring is much duller. Like the passenger pigeon, this 

 bird sometimes lives in flocks of vast extent, its habits generally 

 according with those previously described. 



Mourning Dove* 



(Zenaidura macroura) 



Called also: CAROLINA DOVE ; TURTLE DOVE 



Length^\2 to 13 inches. 



Male — Grayish brown or fawn color above, varying to bluish 

 gray. Crown and upper part of head greenish blue, with 

 green and golden metallic reflections on sides of neck. A 

 black spot under each ear. Forehead and breast reddish 

 buff ; lighter underneath. (General impression of color, 

 bluish fawn.) Bill black, with tumid, fleshy covering; feet 



* The account of the Mourning Dove, which, in a work scientifically classified, 

 belongs in its present position, is reprinted from the author's " Bird Neighbors," which 

 was written without a plan for a supplementary companion volume. 



296 



