THE PIGEONS AND DOVES 



431 



and at another it was estimated that fully a billion birds 

 were accounted for. The laws at that time, gave them 

 no protection because, as stated in some of them, it was 

 considered that they were so numerous that the inroads 

 of man could have no appreciable effect upon their 



morning fly in pairs or small flocks to drink. In fact, 

 old mountaineers in Arizona sometimes follow their 

 flight in order to discover the water holes. During the 

 breeding season, they indulge in curious courtship 

 evolutions, circling with unnatural short beats of the 



numbers. And now they are gone. The last nesting wings and sailing over the nesting area so that they 

 known in New York State occurred near Olean in 1868, appear strangely like sharpshinned hawks 

 in Michigan in 1881. What a pity that even a few of Like all other members of the family, mourning doves 

 these splendid birds could not have been spared, and build crude platforms of twigs without lining of any 

 raised in captivity if necessary, that we of the pres- sort on which to lay their two white eggs. These 



are usually on the lower branches of a tree but oc- 

 casionally they build directly on the ground or on 

 a stump or log fallen in a marsh. They begin nest- 

 ing early in April in the 

 northern States and raise 

 two or three broods, nests 

 containing fresh eggs be- 

 ing not unusual in late 

 August. 



The notes of most wild 

 pigeons are soft cooing 

 sounds and those of the 

 mourning dove are even 

 more gentle and mournful 

 than others. This has 

 given rise to its name. 



The turtle dove, a spe- 

 cies that is often seen in 

 captivity in this country, is 

 native throughout Europe 

 during the summer, retir- 

 ing to northern Africa for 

 the winter. It is quite 

 similar to our mourning 

 dove, being fawn color 

 with a larger black mark 

 on the sides of the neck. 



The rest of the ground 

 doves are mostly tropical 

 though one species is not 

 uncommon from Florida to 

 North Carolina. It frequents 

 all sorts of situations from 

 the swamps and pine bar- 

 rens to the quieter streets of 

 the cities and often comes 

 to feeding stations main- 

 tained for birds. It is not 



ent might better appreciate the wonderful phenome- 

 non witnessed by our fathers. Perhaps, however, we 

 may learn from the mistakes of our fathers and, 

 though we have lost this 

 species, we may yet save 

 others that are following 

 it to extinction. 



The mourning dove, 

 though it is put in a differ- 

 ent family or sub-family, 

 is like a small edition of 

 the passenger pigeon. In- 

 deed when the rewards 

 were offered for the dis- 

 covery of a passenger 

 pigeon, numerous claims 

 for it were made by unob- 

 servant persons who had 

 discovered mourning doves. 

 Indeed the general shape 

 and color pattern are very 

 similar and differences of 

 size are very difficult to 

 judge in the field. The 

 male passenger pigeon is 

 very much bluer on the 

 back and wings and red- 

 der on the breast than the 

 mourning dove, but the 

 female pigeon is scarcely 

 brighter than the male dove. 

 A close examination will al- 

 ways distinguish the mourn- 

 ing dove because it has a 

 narrow black mark below 

 and behind the eye and its 

 belly and undertail coverts 

 are buffy instead of white. 



Mourning doves are found throughout the United 

 States and southern Canada from remote deserts to 

 orchards and gardens, but seldom in the deep woods. 

 They usually travel in pairs or small flocks and never 

 nest in colonies as did the passenger pigeon. For this 

 reason they will never meet its fate and while they have 

 become rare in some localities because of excessive 

 shooting, they have now been taken from the game list 

 in most states and are gradually increasing. They are 

 extremely rapid on the wing, cutting the air like bullets, 

 and it is little wonder that they are so widely distributed. 

 They sometimes nest miles from water, and night and 



PHOTOGRAPHING THE MOURNING DOVE 



The camera is concealed in the gray box raised on a 15 foot tripod of 

 poles. The box was in place several days before the picture was taken 

 and gradually moved closer so that the dove became accustomed to it. 



much larger than a sparrow and a trifle darker and 

 browner than the mourning dove. It nests on the ground 

 or in a low tree or bush and lays small white eggs. Many 

 of the tropical ground doves are larger and dwell on the 

 ground in the dense forest where they are found only 

 with difficulty. Indeed they are not unlike tinamous in 

 the way they slip through the underbrush and disappear. 

 A very interesting fact in connection with the growth 

 of the features of members of the pigeon family has 

 recently been pointed out by C. W. Beebe in the appear- 

 ance of a row of enlarged stiff feathers along the inner 

 margin of the thigh, that are among the first to appear. 



