1892
July 15
(No 2)
Concord, Massachusetts.
[margin]Dove's nest[/margin]
Mass.
Concord.- Visiting the Carolina Dove's nest at 6 P.M. I
found the female sitting, facing N. as on my first visit
(July[blank space]) & with her head raised. This confirms my
conclusion that the crouching or flattened attitude which
she presented yesterday was due to the presence of Jays
in the trees above her. There were no Jays near the place
this evening.
  The Dove started from her nest just as I stopped
under it and fluttered downward through the branches
much as she did yesterday but on this occasion
she did not repeat the wounded bird performance but
on reaching the ground merely alighted and stood erect
and motionless looking at me. When I moved forward
she rose and flew out of sight among the trees. Can
it be that [delete]finding yesterday that[/delete] as her wiles failed to
deceive and lead me away from the nest yesterday she judged
it useless to repeat them to-day or is she getting
to trust me since she finds that I do not molest
either her or her eggs? I must investigate this further.
Climbing to the nest this evening I found in the place
of the larger egg a young bird  The skin of its body was of a
light yellowish or dull flesh color, that of the head darker. It
seemed to be sparsely covered with short hair-like down but
of this I could not make sure for the light was poor
at the time. It was of about the size of a plucked
Kinglet (satrapa).
  As this nest contained its complement of two eggs
when I first found it July 4 and as the parent
was then sitting it appears that the period of
incubation is at least 11 days. I think it exceeds
this time for the larger egg looked somewhat incubated on the 4th