47 



Family PHASIANID^ — Pheasants, Turkeys, etc. 



1. Very large, 40 to 50 inches long; tail broad; plumage lustrous; head and 

 upper neck without feathers; breast with tuft of hair-like feathers 

 Wild Turkey. 



1. Medium sized, 20 to 30 inches long; tail lengthened and graduated, the 

 feathers tapering to a point ; adult male with white neck-ring, the neck 

 and head feathered, breast rich coppery chestnut, with metallic purple 

 and coppery reflections; female brownish, more or less spotted and 

 mottled with darker Ring-necked. Pheasant. 



310. Meleagris gallopavo silvestris (Vieillot) — Wild Turkey. 



This magnificent bird was formerly abundant throughout the 

 wooded portions of the state and even on the adjoining prairies as 

 far west along the Platte and Republican rivers as McCook and North 

 Platte. Now, if present at all, very rare; confined to the heavier 

 bodies of timber between the mouth of the Niobrara and Sioux City 

 in the- vicinity of Rockport north of Omaha, and between Brownville 

 and Rulo. In territorial days it was common along the Elkhorn, the 

 Big and Little Blue rivers, and on the Niobrara to Long Pine, as well 

 as along the wooded borders of others of our streams. 



000. Phasianus torquatus Gmelin — Ring-necked Pheasant. 



This introduced Asiatic pheasant seems to have gained a precarious 

 foothold in portions of southeastern Nebraska where individual birds 

 are occasionally to be met with. A few of them are shot each year 

 although there is a statute making their killing a misdemeanor pun- 

 ishable by a fine of fifty dollars for each bird so destroyed. Table Rock, 

 Pawnee, and Barnston. 



ORDER IX. COLUMB-ffi— Doves and Pigeons 



Family COLUMBnXffi— Doves 



1. Larger, 15 to 17 inches long; tail 8| inches, pointed; back slate-blue; 



below chestnut near chin to whitish toward tail .... Passenger Pigeon. 



1. Smaller, 11 to 13 inches long; tail 5| inches, less pointed; back brownish; 



under parts brownish to yellow or buff Mourning Dove. 



315. Ectopistes migratorius (Linnaeus) — Passenger Pigeon. 



Formerly rather common along the Missouri river. Now verv 

 rare, and probably entirely absent from the state. The last records 

 of its presence as a Nebraska bird are from West Point, Norfolk, 

 Florence, Papillion, and Omaha. 



316. *Zenaidura macroura (Linnaeus) — Mourning Dove. 



An exceedingly common bird over the entire state ; chiefly a summer 

 resident, arriving in April and departing during November. Some 

 individuals remain throughout winter in sheltered localities south- 

 ward. It nests both in trees and on the ground, and rears from two 

 to three broods of young during the summer months. 



