60 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 



3:10 F. quiet at last; D. saying "putt, putt". 



3:12 D. gives an alarm note. 



It will be noted that both birds gave the alarm note, although 

 D. uttered it only once in contrast to the hundreds of times that 

 F. indulged in it. Both used the "putt" about eqallly. They 

 were lying or standing still all the time. This may be a home- 

 logue of the "kah" of the young ring-dove as described by Craig 

 (1909) where he notes they "have an intermittent call. It is 

 in the same tone as the ordinary squeak of the young and hence 

 resembles the contented chirrup of a chicken. It seems to be 

 given when the birds are moving about and sociable." 



In contrast to their conversational mood in November was 

 their almost complete silence in February, March, and April. 

 On February 25, I was with the birds for ten minutes and neither 

 made a vocal sound. On March 10, I noted "they are perfectly 

 silent birds even refraining from 'oo-oo' when they are alarmed." 



Bobwhites are also more talkative when young than when 

 adult ; my pet bobvv^hite at the age of one month "talked all the 

 time," but soon gave up this excessive loquacity (Nice, 1911). 



We heard the first coo from F. on February 7, in the early 

 morning, but it was on'y a partial song, "coo-oo-oo". February 

 18 we heard the full coo of four notes. This was repeated Febru- 

 ary 19 and 20, but was seldom heard after that. D. was heard 

 to coo for the first time March 19, when six months old ; this was 

 the complete song. Both birds cooed very little, perhaps be- 

 cause there were no females present to stimulate them. We 

 heard the first wild dove coo March 10, and the height of cooing 

 came from March 30 to April 16 ; none of the wild doves, how- 

 ever, were on our grounds, so F. and D. heard only each other. 



AGE OF REACHING MATURITY 

 How long does it take for a mourning dove to become* fully 

 adult? Of course our conditions were unnatural, but since both 

 birds seemed healthy almost all of the time they probably devel- 

 oped at much the same rate as they would have if wild. D. at 

 8 weeks had practically his adult weight ; at 3 1-2 months he had 

 all his adult plumage except that his tail was not full length ; ac 

 5 months he began to show a very little iridescence on his neck 

 feathers ; at 5 1-2 months he began to "whistle" with his wjngs ; 

 and at 6 months he cooed. F. had all the adult plumage the 

 middle of November ; he showed iridescence early in December ; 

 he "whistled" with his wings first on December 13 and he first 

 cooed February 7. Our estimation of his age would bring these 



