130 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



"On April 9, the day after my arrival at Lomita, I went to Hidalgo to 

 make arrangements about mail, supplies, etc. About a mile above the village, 

 on familiar collecting ground of the season before, I discovered a Red-billed 

 Pigeon on her nest in a thicket, and about 8 feet from the ground. It was 

 not until I had approached to within arm's length that she arose and, tum- 

 bling heavily into the bushes, fluttered away over the ground in capital feint 

 of injury, in order to attract attention away from the nest. The nest, made 

 of twigs, was frail, saucer-shaped, and contained a single nearly fledged young. 

 This bird breeds irregularly, and lays several times in a season. I found 

 nests, during the whole time of my stay, containing eggs and young in all 

 stages of development, but in no case did a nest contain more eggs or 

 young than a single one. The parents are fond and affectionate, and both 

 assist in incubation. Their food, when I saw them, was chiefly the hack- 

 berry fruit. 



"The young from the egg have the upper parts plumbeous and sparsely 

 covered with dark hair-like feathers. Under parts are pale and naked. The 

 half-grown young have plumage on the body like the adult. Head and flanks 

 do not become feathered until bird is nearly fledged, and in the half-grown 

 young, just commences to show. From a large series of eggs I find them 

 to average 1.55 by 1.10 inches (equal to 39.4 by 27.9 millimetres), the length 

 varying from 1.60 to 1.45 inches (equal to 40.6 to 36.8 millimetres), and the 

 breadth from 1.18 to 1.03 inches (equal to 45.7 to 26.2 millimetres)." 1 



Asst. Surg. James C. Merrill, U. S. Army, writes me as follows: "This 

 handsome and large Pigeon is found in abundance during the summer months, 

 arriving in flocks of fifteen or twenty about the last week in February. 

 Though not very uncommon about Fort Brown, it is much more plentiful 

 a few miles higher up the river, where the dense woods offer it the shade and 

 retirement it seeks. Three nests, found in a grove of ash trees on the banks 

 of the Rio Grande, near camp at Hidalgo, were frail platforms of twigs, such 

 as are usually built by other Pigeons. Each contained one egg. These are 

 of a pearly whiteness, and average 1.50 by 1.08 inches (equal to 38.1 by 

 27.4 millimetres). Both sexes incubate. 2 * * * 



Capt. William L. Carpenter, Ninth Infantry, U. S. Army, writes me: 

 "While at Fort Grant, Arizona, July 25, 1886, three specimens of this species 

 were shown me, which had been shot that day near the post, in the foothills 

 of the Graham Mountains, which would indicate that these birds breed in 

 Arizona. Graham Mountain is distant about 90 miles from the Mexican 

 border." 



I can add nothing new to these accounts; the length of incubation is prob- 

 ably the same as that of the Band-tailed Pigeon and a single egg seems to con- 

 stitute a set. 



There are only four eggs of this species in the U. S. National Museum 

 collection; the shape of two of these may be called elliptical oval, the re- 



1 U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey, Hayden, 1879, Vol. v, No. 3, pp. 422, 423, 

 Proceeding a U. S. National Museum, 1878, Vol. I, p. 157. 



