MOURNING DOVE 



29 



become so entangled in a hair that it could not 

 get out of the chimney. The note says : " His 

 anxious mother who had cast in her lot with him, 

 to remain and to die with him, for the time of 

 insects was about gone, came into the chimney 

 and actually waited beside me while I snipped 

 the strong hair and released him." As Major 

 Bendire comments, from his sympathetic know- 

 ledge of bird life : " This instance certainly shows 

 a tender side of bird nature, and such instances 

 are far more common than they appear to be, if 

 we could only see them." 



Mourning Dove : Zenaidura macroura. 



General coloring fawn ; under parts pinkish ; sides of the neck 

 with metallic pink reflections ; a small black mark below the 

 ear ; tail showing a bordering of black and white in flight. 

 Young, feathers tipped with whitish. Length, about 12 inches. 



GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION. North America, breeding from 

 Cuba north to southern Canada and New England, and win- 

 tering from southern Illinois and New York to the Greater 

 Antilles and Panama. 



It is pleasant to 

 know that this beauti- 

 ful Dove is a familiar 

 resident of most of the 

 United States, for it is 

 one of our most attrac- 

 tive birds. Sometimes 

 we see the soft fawn- 

 colored creature look- 



FIG. 11. 

 Mourning Dove. 



