THE MOURNING DOVE. 141 



Strange and unusual nesting sites are rather common with this species, and 

 I will mention a few of them: 



Mr. Lynds Jones found a Mourning Dove's nest on top of a straw shed, and 

 another beneath a shed roof. Mr. R. B. McLaughlin reports one found in an 

 old nest of a Green Heron, and another in a cavity of a tree. He writes me as 

 follows: "The excavation had been made by Woodpeckers, and did not extend 

 downward for more than an inch or so, but had been dug almost straight in. 

 This made a nice foundation upon which the nest was built. The site was all 

 that was peculiar about it." 



This Dove will occasionally lay its eggs in nests occupied by other species, 

 and one of the strangest combinations of this kind is thus described in Forest 

 and Stream, September, 1889, by Mr. J. L. Davidson, in his "Birds of Niagara 

 County, New York;" he says: "June 17, 1882, I found a Black-billed Cuckoo 

 and a Mourning Dove sitting together on a Robin's nest. The Cuckoo was the 

 first to leave the nest. On securing the nest I found it contained two eggs of 

 the Cuckoo, two of the Mourning Dove, and one Robin's egg. The Robin had 

 not quite finished the nest when the Cuckoo took possession of it and filled it 

 nearly full of rootlets, but the Robin got in and laid one egg. Incubation had 

 commenced in the Robin's and Cuckoo's eggs, but not in those of the Mourning 

 Dove. I have the nest and eggs in my collection. This was first published 

 under the head of 'A strange story' (Forest and Stream, August 24, 1882, 

 p. 65)." 



Mr. Whitmer Stone writes me: "In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 

 where this species breeds extensively in orchards, I have found them build- 

 ing a thin platform of sticks on top of old nests of the American Robin, 

 Merula migratoria, and the King Bird, Tyrannus tyrannus, and once in August 

 I found a Dove sitting on two eggs, which were deposited in a Robin's nest 

 from which the young birds had departed a month before. Fragments of the 

 shells of the Robin's eggs were still to be seen in the bottom of the nest, and 

 the Doves did not seem to have done anything at all in the way of building." 



That they are hardy birds is well attested by Mr. J. W. Preston, of Baxter, 

 Iowa, who writes me as follows: "A few remain here during winter, and are 

 seen about stockyards, where they come from the woods to feed. Five are 

 with me this winter, 1890, and are doing well, though they were a pitiful 

 sight when the snow was 16 inches deep, and the mercury fell 20° below 

 zero. Our Doves have a habit of repairing to some dry ditch to roost, 

 Hundreds will flock to some chosen rendezvous, and they are very regular 

 in their movements. This seems to occur in the more sparsely timbered 

 regions, in the autumn." 



Their food consists of small seeds, the various kinds of grain, berries, 

 beechnuts, small acorns, wild pease, and the tender tops of plants, worms 

 and insects of different kinds. Mr. C. S. Brimley, of Raleigh, North Carolina, 

 accuses this species of pulling up the sprouting corn; and he says that it also 

 does great damage to the early pease in the trucking districts. In Florida, 



