188 PIGEONS AND DOVES. 



neck with metallic reflections ; middle of the back and scapulars more or less 

 washed with olive-brown ; middle tail-feathers fuscous, outer ones black at 

 the base, then slaty blue, fading into a broad, white tip ; under parts deep, 

 rich vinaccous ; lower belly white ; throat bluish slate-color. Ad. 9 . — Simi- 

 lar, but upper paits with less iridescence and more olive-brown ; breast pale 

 grayish brown ; belly whitish, ///i.— Generally similar to the ? , but the 

 feathers of the upper parts and breast tipped with whitish, the primaries edged 

 and tipped with rufous. L., 16-29 ; W., 7-82; T., 7-53 ; B., 7-10. 



J^ange.— Eastern North America, northward in the interior to Hudson Bay, 

 breeding locally throughout the more northern part of its range. 



Washington, rare and irregular T. V. or W. V. Sing Sing, formerly rare 

 S. K. and common T. V., ApL 15 to May 17 ; Aug. 21 to Oct. 11 ; last seen 

 Oct. 11, 1888. Cambridge, rare and irregular T. V. 



JVest^ a platform of sticks, in a tree. £gffs^ one to two, white, 1-45 x 1-09. 



Wilson, writing about 1808, estimated that a flock of Wild Pigeons 

 observed by him near Frankfort, Kentucky, contained at least 2,230,- 

 272,000 individuals. Captain Bendire, writing in 1892, says : "... It 

 looks now as if their total extermination might be accomplished within 

 the present century. The only thing which retards their complete ex- 

 tinction is that it no longer pays to net these birds, they being too 

 scarce for this now, at least in the more settled portions of the coun- 

 try, and also, perhaps, that from constant and unremitting persecution 

 on their breeding grounds they have changed their habits somewhat, 

 the majority no longer breeding in colonies, but scattering over the 

 country and breeding in isolated pairs" (Life Histories of North 

 American Birds, p. 133). 



An article by William Brewster on The Present Status of the Wild 

 Pigeon as a Bird of the United States, with some Notes on its Habits 

 (Auk, vi, 1889, pp. 285-291), gives much information concerning the 

 recent history of the bird in Michigan, one of its last strongholds. 

 According to an informant of Mr. Brewster's, the last nesting in Michi- 

 gan of any importance was in 1881. " It was of jonlj moderate size — 

 perhaps eight miles long." The largest known Michigan nesting oc- 

 curred in 1876 or 1877. It was twenty-eight miles long and averaged 

 three or four miles in width. 



In the Atlantic States the Wild Pigeon is now so rare a bird that 

 during the past sixteen years I have seen only one pair. 



316. Zenaidura xnacroura (Xf«^.). Mourning Dove. Ad. $. — 



Uppf^^r parts olive grayish brown ; forehead vinaccous ; crown bluish slate- 

 color ; sides of the neck with metallic reflections, a stnall black mark below the 

 ear; middle tail-feathers like the back, the others, seen from above, slaty 

 gray for the basal half, then banded with black and broadly tipped with ashy 

 «.nd white; breast vinaccous; belly cream-butf. Ad. $. — Similar, but with 

 less iridescence ; breast and forehead washed with grayish brown. Jm. — 



