158 Birds of Colorado 
metallic patch are less well developed or even absent ; the young bird 
is like the female, but has lighter edges to the feathers and no collar 
or metallic patch. 
Distribution.—The Rocky Mountain region east to the Pacific, from 
British Columbia southwards to Guatemala; a summer resident orly 
north of Arizona and New Mexico. 
In Colorado the Band-tailed Pigeon is » not uncommon summer 
resident of rather irregular distribution, chiefly in the mountains from 
6,000 to 10,000 feet from Estes Park (Kellogg & Cooke), and the moun- 
tains about Glenwood (Cooke) southward. Other recorded localities 
are: A gulch near Gold Hill, Boulder co. (Gale), Mountains above the 
Platte Valley (Say), Platte Cafion (Smith), South Park, breeding 
(Carter), Wet Mountain up to 16,000 feet (Lowe), Del Norte (Henshaw), 
Durango, breeding (Cooke). 
Habits.—This Pigeon is particularly fond of the acorns 
of the various kinds of oaks growing in Colorado, and 
its distribution probably largely depends on the presence 
of these ; but it also eats berries in the summer before 
the acorns are ripe, and possibly other seeds as well. 
It generally goes about in smaller or larger flocks, and 
has an Owl-like hooting note. 
Morrison is the only Colorado observer who describes 
the breeding habits ; he found nests both on the ground 
as well as in scrub-oak bushes; they all contained only 
one glossy white egg, measuring 1°63 x 109. The 
nest is a slight platform of twigs on a flat tree limb, 
while sometimes the nest of another bird is utilized. 
In some cases two eggs are laid. The egg is described 
by Bendire as a pointed elliptic alovate, and averages 
155 xX 1:10. I have not found any nesting date for 
Colorado, but in Arizona eggs have been met with every 
month in the year, and several broods are probably raised. 
Genus ZENAIDURA. 
Bill shorter than the head, slender and weak ; a bare space round the 
eye; tail long, about equal to the wing, of fourteen very strongly 
graduated feathers, which are tapered and somewhat obtusely pointed ; 
tarsus not feathered, scutellate; black spots on the scapulars. 
