Ord 



er v^oiumoirormes 



Pigeons and Doves: Family Columbidae 



Band-tailed Pigeon: 



Columba fas data fas data Say 



DESCRIPTION. "Adult male: End of tail with broad two inch band, pale gray, bor- 

 dered above by black; back of neck with white collar adjoined by iridescent bronzy patch 

 spreading back as a greenish wash; head and under parts purplish pink, fading to 

 whitish on belly; fore part of back tinged with brownish, hinder part bluish gray; 

 wing quills blackish, coverts bluish gray, faintly edged with white. Adult female. : 

 like male but duller and much grayer; white nuchal band often obsolete, iridescent 

 patch restricted, head grayish instead of pink, under parts largely grayish. Young 

 without white on nape, under parts dull grayish, tinged with brown on breast; 

 upper parts with feathers more or less lightly bordered with paler; head and neck 

 dull bluish gray in male, light grayish brown in female. Length: 15-16, wing 8.00- 

 8.80, tail 6.00-6.50." (Bailey) Nest: A flimsy structure of twigs on the flat limb of 

 a tree (Plate 56, A). Eggs: Usually i, rarely 2., pure white. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from British Columbia and north central Colorado 

 south into Mexico. Winters from southwestern United States southward. In Ore- 

 gon: Common summer resident and breeding species west of Cascades. Most 

 abundant in Coast Ranges. Casual in winter in western Oregon. Straggler only to 

 eastern Oregon. 



DOUGLAS (1914) collected the first Band-tailed Pigeon (Plate 56, A) for 

 the State at the mouth of the Santiam River, August 19, 1815, and since 

 that time it has been reported regularly by ornithologists visiting western 

 Oregon. It is greatly prized as a game bird and at one time was reduced 

 in numbers, but a long Federal closed season has restored the species to 

 something of its former abundance. It is now common in the western 

 part of the State, where it is found in the greatest abundance on the coast 

 (earliest date of arrival, March 5, Lane County; latest date of fall depar- 

 ture, October 2.8, Lincoln County). There it builds a nest, usually high 

 in a coniferous tree, and lays its one or two eggs on a flimsy platform of 

 twigs. Egg laying is at its height in late May and June, the extreme 

 dates being May 3 and July n. There is one winter record from Curry 

 County: Jewett reported 150 birds feeding on madrone berries at Agness, 

 January 18, 192.8. Our only definite record for eastern Oregon is one by 

 Jewett for Harney County of a bird found October 19, 192.8, at the Home 

 Creek Ranch at the western base of the Steens Mountains, a most unlikely 

 place for a Band-tailed Pigeon. 



When the Passenger Pigeons disappeared in the eastern States, a theory 



[3*5] 



