OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 307 



Where the nest is not interfered with, the same locality is 

 chosen several years in succession. 



The young are objects of special parental solicitude. 

 They are carefully nourished by their parents, and provided 

 with a plentiful supply of suitable food. They are vigorous 

 feeders, both old birds often being absent from home at the 

 same time, in quest of food. They are fed, after the fashion 

 of pigeons, upon a mixture composed of a lacteous secretion 

 and the macerated materials of the crop. Occasionally, 

 the caterpillars of Anisopteryx vernata, A. pometaria, 

 Zerenc catenaria, and other smooth skinned larvae, are fed 

 to them ; but always after having been thoroughly killed and 

 mashed. At the age of seventeen days, they are sufficiently 

 matured to quit the nest, but require parental attention for 

 nearly a fortnight longer. The same nest-full usually con- 

 tains one of each sex. There is never more than a single 

 brood in a season, in this latitude. After the young have 

 attained their full size, both they and their parents fre- 

 quently dwell together in the locality in which the nest is 

 placed, or not uncommonly associate w r ith other families of 

 the same species, on the most' amicable terms, until the 

 season for departure arrives. This occurs about the middle 

 September, but never later than the last of the month, even 

 when the season is unusually propitious. 



In Louisiana, according to Audubon, these Doves gener- 

 ally breed in April, and occasionally as early as March. 

 They are there double-brooded. At night, they roost in 

 various places ; sometimes upon the ground among the 

 grasses in waste fields ; amid the dead foliage of trees ; 'or 

 in clivers evergreens. Their flesh is said to be exceedingly 

 fine and juicy, and, at times, is regarded as superior to that 

 of the Woodcock, or the Snipe. In Southern Illinois, accor- 

 ding to Mr. Ridgway, they nest not only in bushes and trees, 

 but also upon the tops of stumps, tops of fence rails, and on 

 the ground 'in fields of grain. 



When captured either young or old, and confined to a 



