142 LIFE HISTORIES OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



according to Dr. William L, Ralph, they are very partial to feeding on 

 grounds recently burnt over. 



Incubation, in which both sexes assist, is said to last about two weeks. 

 Two, and possibly three, broods are reared in a season. The nests are frail 

 affairs, simply slight platforms of small sticks or twigs, very shallow, some- 

 times lined with bits of dry grass, a few leaves, Spanish moss, or pine 

 needles, whichever is most convenient to the nesting site, and sometimes 

 they are without any lining whatever, so that the eggs can readily be seen 

 through the bottom of the nest. The nest, frail as it may often be, requires, 

 nevertheless, considerable labor to construct, as this Dove, like most of the 

 members of this family, is a poor nest builder; and, as far as my observations 

 go, this seems to be done entirely by the female, the male looking on and 

 cooing most of the time, but not assisting its mate in any way. On the 

 ground there is even less of an attempt at making a nest, and I have seen 

 the eggs lying in a slight hollow on the bare ground, not even surrounded 

 by a few sticks or grass. 



Mr. R. B. McLaughlin says: "Like other species which never lay more 

 than two eggs, the Mourning Dove skips one day in the laying of its eggs ; 

 that is, if it lays the first one to-day it will not lay to-morrow, but the day 

 after the second egg will be deposited." 



The eggs are usually two in number, sometimes only one. Occasionally 

 three, and even four, have been found in a nest, presumably laid by different 

 birds. Mr. F. Stephens found a nest containing three eggs, on April 13, 1879. 

 In two of these eggs incubation had commenced, the third was fresh. 



Mr. Lynds Jones found a set of four near Grinnell, Iowa, and thinks they 

 were all laid by one bird. He further states: "These Doves are very loving 

 all through the year, and both parents are very attentive to their young, even 

 long after they leave the nest. I have often found the female covering fully 

 fledged young, always sitting crosswise of them. The young nestlings are 

 fed on cutworms and other worms, as well as bugs; later they feed on grain 

 and small seeds. If the sitting bird be flushed, she will tumble from the 

 nest with piteous cries and in a very dilapidated condition. The male is 

 always near by. The young grow very rapidly, and leave the nest early. 

 In this locality nests on the prairie contain eggs fully two weeks earlier than 

 nests in the woods." 



The eggs of the Mourning Dove vary considerably in shape as well as 

 in size. The majority may be called elliptical oval, others are elliptical ovate, 

 and a few oval. They are pure white in color; the shell is smooth and moder- 

 ately glossy. The average measurement of seventy-nine specimens in the 

 U. S. National Museum collection, is 28 by 21 millimetres. The largest egg 

 in this series measures 30.5 by 22.5, the smallest 25 by 19.5 millimetres. 



Of the type specimens, No. 20818 (PI. 4, Fig. 8), from the Merrill collection, 

 was taken by Asst. Surg. James C. Merrill, U. S. Army, near Fort Brown, 

 Texas, on June 8, 1876; and No. 20796 (PI. 4, Fig. 9), from the Bendire col- 

 lection, was taken May 26, 1872, by the writer, near Tucson, Arizona. 



