'OFJBICB OB-^ 



WITH UIICL3 SA].i'S IIA^URALISTS. 



AMOUTiOEMSITT ; Every two weeks at this time, our Wilds Man tells us about 

 his visits with Uncle Sam's Naturalists. Today he tells me he has been out 

 dove hunting;. He didn't kill any doves, but he bagged a few facts about 

 them from a big dove and pigeon man in the United States Biological Survey. 

 You tell »em, Mr. TJilds Man 



I wouldn't think of telling you sportsmen, who love good shooting 

 at fast flyers, anything about doveB* 



The mourning dove is the turtle dove. All lovers know the mo\irning 

 dove, with its sweetly sad, cooing love-note. 



And all lovers of bird beauty have ad!:iired the soft, delicate coloring 

 and trim form of the dove. It is the very symbol of beauty, love, and peace, 

 not only between lovers, but between nations. 



The more practical minded recognize that mo\irning doves are friends 

 of the farmer in destroying an enoraous qiiantity of weed seeds. MoTirning 

 doves nest throughout the cntiro United States. A pair will raise from 3 

 to 5 broods in a season. 



In many place, wc arc so well acquainted vvith mourning dovos, the some 

 individual mourning dovos, that wc regard thum as part of the place. However, 

 Mr, Frederick C, Lincoln, the dove and pigeon expert of the United States 

 Biological Survey, tells me that doves do migrate. From his bird-banding work 

 he has produced the final proof that the flight of mourning doves is both 

 interstate and international, 



A mourning dove banded at Fort Riley, Kansas, was shot in southern 

 Mexico, Many of those banded in Northern States have later been recovered 

 far away in the South, Most of the mourning doves that breed in the northern 

 Stat OS, lir, Lincoln says, apparently spond their winters in the States of 

 Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, Georgia scams to bo the favorite wintering 

 ground for them, Poves from Illinoia, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 

 New York, and ITew Jersey have been found in G<5orgia, Only those bearing the 

 numbered bands put on them in Illinois an^ Ohio have so far been found in 

 Louisiana, But Texas attracts doves from South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, 

 Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, There are some scattered returns 

 from States in between. 



I guess we all know something about mourning doves. 



ilourning doves are old familiar friends of ours. 



