324 USEFUL BIRDS. 



Mourning Dove. Carolina Dove. Turtle Dove. 



Zenaidura maeroura. 



Length. — Nearly twelve inches. 



Adult Male. — Upper parts mainly grayish-blue, shaded with olive-brown ; head 

 and neck brown, with a bluish overcast ; sides of neck iridescent, with red- 

 dish and golden reflections ; a black spot below the ear ; outer tail feathers 

 and wing leathers show bluish when spread ; all outer tail feathers have 

 a black bar and a white tip; tail rather elongated and pointed; lower 

 parts purplish, changing to yellowish on belly, bluish on sides, and whitish 

 on chin. 



Adult Female. — Similar, but duller. 



Young. — Grayer than female; many feathers have whitish edgings. 



Nest. — A mere platform of sticks, at a moderate height in a tree, near trunk. 



■Eggs. — Two; white. 



Season. — April to October. 



The Mourning Dove was never so abundant in this State 

 as the Passenger Pigeon, for Massachusetts is near the north- 

 ern border of its range ; still, it was once common where 

 it is now rare, particularly in western Massachusetts, but it 

 is now so uncommon generally as to be of little economic 

 importance. In some parts of Middlesex, Plymouth, and 

 Barnstable counties it is still common locally in spring 

 and summer, and its mournful cooing is heard almost daily. 

 A variety of notes has been attributed to this species, 

 but I can recall only the " coo," and a twittering sound that 

 appears to be made by the wings when it first rises in flight. 



This Dove is of no great value as an insect eater, for it 

 feeds largely on seeds. Wheat, oats, rye, corn, and barley 

 are all eaten, forming about thirty-two per cent, of the food, 

 but perhaps three-fourths of this is waste grain picked up 

 in the fields. Buckwheat is a favorite food. Some grain is 

 taken from newly sown fields, but the greater part of the 

 food consists of weed seeds. Nash says that the crops of 

 these birds are often so full of seeds that, if a bird is shot, 

 the crop bursts open when it strikes the ground. He says 

 that bindweed is a favorite food. A Dove that was exam- 

 ined at the Department of Agriculture was found to contain 

 ninety-two hundred seeds, mostly those of noxious weeds, 

 and none of useful plants. This was rather an unusual num- 

 ber, but it shows what the bird is capable of doing as a 

 helper on the farm. 



