The Western White-winged Dove 



Immature: Without iridescence or black spot under ear; purplish vinaceous wash of 

 head, etc., reduced. Length of adult about 300 (11. 81); wing 160.3 (6.31); tail 93 

 (3.66); bill 22.6 (.89); tarsus 25.4 (1.00). 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size, — a little larger and stouter than Mourning 

 Dove; tail rounded, not sharply graduated; white wing-patch distinctive. 



Nesting. — Nest: A rude but sometimes bulky platform of interlaced twigs, 

 weed-stalks, or grasses; placed at moderate heights in bush or tree. Eggs: 2; variable 

 in shape, but elliptical oval or elliptical ovate; creamy white, ivory-yellow, or pale 

 cartridge buff. Av. size 30.5 x 23 (1.20 x .906); index 75. One specimen in the 

 M. C. O. coll. measures: 33 x 20.57 (1.30 x .81) ; index 62.3; another, 25.4x20.57 (1.00 

 x .81), i. e., index 81; still another, a "freak," 27.7 x 16.76 (1.09 x .66); index 60.5. 

 Season: April-July; one brood. 



Range of Melopelia asiatica. — Southern border of the United States south to 

 Costa Rica; Bahamas and Greater Antilles. 



Range of M. a. meamsi. — Southwestern New Mexico, southern Arizona, south- 

 eastern California, southern Lower California, and the Mexican plateau, south to 

 Mexico and Puebla. Accidental in Colorado and western Washington (2 records). 



Occurrence in California. — Summer resident locally in the valley of the 

 Colorado River. A straggler taken near Escondido in San Diego County (Sept. 

 25, 1911, Dixon). 



Authorities. — Morcom (Melopelia leucoptera), Bull. Ridgway Orn. Club, no. 2, 

 1887, p. 40 (Colo. Valley); J". Dixon, Condor, vol. xiv., 1912, 196 (Escondido) ; Grinnell, 

 Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. xii., 1914, p. 123 (Colo. Valley); Wetmore, Condor, vol. 

 xxii., 1920, p. 140 (habits; Ariz.). 



WE HAVE no record, apparently, of ornithological conditions ob- 

 taining in Coachella Valley, which is the heart of the Colorado Desert, 

 prior to its inundation in 1907 by "New" River. But we may be fairly 

 certain that the mesquite forest, whose "bones" protrude even yet from 

 the whitening shallows of Salton Sea, once resounded to the sonorous calls 

 of the White-winged Dove. For where the mesquite tree stands, there 

 dwells Paloma cantador, the "Sonora Pigeon," beloved of Mexicans, and 

 most familiar of south Arizonian birds. Palomas give not only color and 

 movement to the landscape in Maytime, but their combined vocal offer- 

 ings form the great diapason of all morning choruses from the Gila and the 

 lower Colorado south to Brownsville and through the land of the Aztecs. 



Oo uh' uh oooo, says the amorous dove; and hearing him for the first 

 time in the distance, you might take him for a young cockerel. In utter- 

 ing this note the bird throws his head well forward and closes his eyes 

 ecstatically (thereby disclosing a livid blue eyelid) but he does not open 

 his beak. In defiance of all the masters, he sings through his nose. The 

 effect is charming, it must be admitted, but one cannot help wondering 

 what the sound would be if only the bird would "sing out." Chanticleer's 

 effort would surely pale beside it. As the bird becomes more earnest — 

 gets down to business — the cadence changes. Hoo'luh 00' uh hoo'luhoo'uh, 



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