in order to round out knowledge of the winter range, he visited Guatemala 
and El Salvador, Biologist Johnson A. Neff resumed his investigations of 
the western race in Arizona and, with the cooperation of the State game 
department, carried the work into the Mexican State of Sonora during the 
spring of 1942. 
It is doubtful whether there is general understanding of the heavy toll 
of these birds that is sometimes taken in a very limited area. Figures ob- 
tained in Texas by Federal and State agents indicated that in 1941 more than 
100,000 were killed. In the annual report of the Texas Game, Fish, and Ovster 
Commission for the fiscal year 1940-41, the statement is made that: "The white- 
winged dove in Texas decreased from an estimated population of 2,000,000 in 
1920 to an estimated 500,000 in 1939. A general survey of the species in 1940 
revealed that hunting was excessive (estimated kill of 60 percent of popula- 
tion), that agricultural crops were fast replacing brush lands utilized as 
nesting habitat (500,000 acres cleared since 1920), and that grackles and jays 
were taking an enormous toll of eggs and young (varied from 60 percent to 90 
percent on six study units)."' 
Band-tailed Pigeon 
The band-tailed pigeon is of interest as a game bird only in the Pacific 
Coast States, Arizona, and New Mexico. Its status appears to vary in different 
sections in successive years, but there seems no particular reason for undue 
concern, as only from British Columbia has there been any report of material 
decrease, and against this may be placed renorts of increase in other Pacific 
coast areas, notably California. It also appears that the species is holding 
its own and even increasing to some extent in the Rocky Mountain region, At 
times this bird is destructive to grain, apricots, prunes, olives, cherries, 
and other small fruits, but at others even during migration--it inhabits inac- 
cessible sections where it is relatively safe from sportsmen. 
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