BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
105 
Plate XIX. 
ZENAIDUEA CAEOLINENSIS, (Lini^.) Bonapaete. 
Mourning Dove. 
The Mourning Dove, one of the best known of onr American 
species, is quite generally diffused throughout the United States. It is 
found from the Gulf of Mexico to Colorado, and from the Atlantic west- 
ward to the Pacific Ocean. In the Northern States it is chiefly migratory; 
in the Middle Atlantic but partially so ; while in the country south of 
Pennsylvania it is a winter resident, and manifests a tendency to grega- 
riousness, flocks of hundreds, and even more, being seen during the winter 
in the woods of South Carolina and Georgia. 
East of the Eocky Mountains, as well as in the vast region stretching 
westward, they occur in greater or less abundance. To be sure there are 
localities where they are notably scarce, but only in regions unblessed by 
Nature with suitable accommodations for nesting purposes, and with the 
essential means of subsistence. 
In the South, breeding occasionally takes jilace early in March, but 
ordinarily not before the beginning of April. Not so in more northern 
sections. The eighth of March, which is also the time of their appearance 
in the Middle States, marks the period of their arrival in New England, 
although in Eastern Pennsylvania, during very backward seasons, their 
visit is often delayed until the fifteenth of April. But, in the extreme 
northern parts of onr country, various circumstances combine to render 
their coming an event of later occurrence, for we find that they do not 
reach the States of Michigan and Wisconsin much before the twentieth of 
the month. The vicissitudes incident to change of climate and new envi- 
