About the House. 



n 



Mourning Dove. 



Zenaidura macroura (Linn.), 



The wild pigeons having ahnost disappeared from the Eastern United 

 States, the representative of the family left in the northeastern portion is the 

 Mourning Dove. So that it is pretty safe to say that here 

 the only pigeon-like bird to be met with in a wild state is 

 this bird. It is quite familiar, going about in twos or 

 threes, breeding often in evergreens or thick bushes close to our houses, and 

 dusting itself in the roads about the locahties it frequents. It is about afoot 

 or rather more in length and is clothed in traditional dove color. Bluish on 

 the crown, with iridescent sheen and of a general olive dove color on the 

 back and rump, it is to be known from its size and a small, black, crescent-shaped 

 mark below the side of the face. It has the wedge-shaped tail so character- 

 istic of the Passenger Pigeon and is like him in general appearance but is 

 much smaller. 



MOURNING DOVE. 



The nest is a loose structure of dead twigs, placed in a tree generally 

 well up, some ten feet or more, and but rarely on the ground. The two 

 white eggs are an inch and a fifth long and more than four fifths of an inch in 

 their smaller diameter. This dove is found throughout temperate North 

 America from Southern Canada and Maine south to the West Indies and 

 Panama. It breeds from Cuba north and winters from southern New Jer- 

 sey and Illinois south. 



This is a large pigeon, fourteen inches long and dark in general color, 

 resembling closely a certain color phase of the Domestic Pigeon, deep slate with 

 greenish and purple sheen. The entire top of the head above the eyes is 



