XXVI 



MOUENING DOVE; TURTLE DOVE 

 316. Zenaidura macroura carolinensis (Linn.) 



This bird is so universally distributed over the whole 

 United States that its identification is easy and requires 

 very little to be said about its plumage, as an aid to its 

 recognition. Its head and neck are brown and the general 

 coloring of the bird is grayish-blue ; it has a golden irides- 

 cence at the side of the neck and black spots under the 

 ear coverts. The tail is leaden blue and bordered with 

 white. 



Mourning Doves are about twelve inches long and 

 are semi-gregarious, migrating in small flocks about the 

 first of October. The eggs, two in number, are pure 

 white. 



The Dove's nest is one of the poorest samples of 

 bird architecture ; it is a mere flat layer of small twigs, 

 resembling a piece of corduroy road, a willow mat- 

 tress, or a log raft. Why the round eggs do not roll off 

 this platform, I cannot understand. 



Mourning Doves are ground feeders, eating only 

 grain and weed seeds and showing partiality for wheat 

 and oat stubble fields, where, in August and September, 

 small flocks may be seen flying, when disturbed, from 

 one farm to another. (Fig. 37.) Late in the day, as 

 roosting time approaches, these birds fly to old aban- 

 doned weed fields and drop on the ground out of sight of 

 Hawks and Owls. 



When you are walking across the fields after dark 

 the Doves, ever on the alert, fly up several feet ahead 

 of you and disappear in the darkness. Unfortunately, 

 for them, they are very palatable and much sought by 

 hunters during the months of August and September. I 

 have seen a hunter have in his possession two hundred 

 of these most innocent of the harmless and beneficial 

 birds. 



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