LAND BIRDS. 253 
The nest is usually very slightly built, of a few twigs, weedstalks and 
straws, forming a nearly flat platform on which the two white, unspotted, 
elliptical eggs are laid. These measure 1.10 by .84 inches. 
A noteworthy performance of this bird at mating and nesting time seems 
to have been overlooked by its biographers. An 
individual leaves its perch on a tree, and, with vigor- 
ous and sometimes noisy flapping (the wings seeming 
to strike each other above the back), rises obliquely 
to a height of a hundred feet or more, and then, on 
widely extended and motionless wings, glides back 
earthward in one or more sweeping curves. Usually 
the wings, during this gliding flight, are carried some- 
what below the plane of the body, in the manner of 
a soaring yellowlegs or sandpiper, and sometimes the 
bird makes a complete circle or spiral before again 
flapping its wings, which it does just before alighting. 
Occasionally a soaring dove glides downward in this 
way until within a yard or two of the ground, but 
more often it perches again at an elevation of twenty 
or thirty feet. While gliding rapidly downward 
its resemblance to a small hawk is noticeable. 
This peculiar evolution is commonly repeated 
several times at intervals of two or three minutes, Fig. 66. 
and appears to be a display flight for the benefit of 1! of Mourning Dove. 
its mate, the assumption being that only the male Dove soars. Although 
familiar with the Mourning Dove’s habits in New England, Western New 
York, and elsewhere, we have never seen this peculiar flight except in 
Michigan. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult male: Forehead, sides of head and neck, and breast, clear pinkish-buff, lightest 
and most buffy on forehead and sides of head, darkest and pinkest on the breast; chin 
nearly pure white; sides of the lower neck glossed with changeable metallic violet or reddish 
purple; a small but distinct blue-black spot on each side of the upper neck; crown and 
occiput clear bluish gray, becoming brownish on back, rump, upper tail-coverts, scapulars 
and wing-coverts; the inner wing-coverts and scapulars with distinct rounded black spots; 
middle tail-feathers like the back, the others slaty blue at base, crossed by a broad black 
band, the terminal third or more white or bluish white. Adult female: Similar, but 
duller and browner, with little or no blue-gray on the head, or pinkish on the breast; 
the purplish area on the neck smaller and fainter; the black neck spots small and dull 
blackish. Young: Similar to adult female, but many of the feathers of the upper surface, 
neck and chest, with whitish edgings or tips, the black neck spot and metallic gloss entirely 
wanting. 
Tanai 11 to 13 inches; wing 5.70 to 6.10; tail 5.70 to 6.50. 
