Carl Naether—Observations on Keeping Foreign Doves 47


one another’s habits and company so that there are no clashes

whatever.


It is interesting to note that some varieties of Doves breed in this

climate the whole year through. Thus, the Bronze-wings are not at all

bothered by cold nights—we have frosts here occasionally in December,

January, and February, when the water-dishes are covered with ice—-

nor are the Diamond Doves. They will continue to breed month after

month, stopping occasionally in the early fall to take a few week’s

deserved rest. It is not easy to say whether these breeding conditions

are likely to endanger and weaken their health and shorten their life’s

breeding period. It seems clear, however, that they are not breeding too

rapidly, since these two varieties raise their youngsters carefully to

maturity each time before laying subsequent clutches of eggs. The Cape

Doves seem to be somewhat more sensitive to climatic changes, for they

stop breeding activities promptly with the advent of cold nights in

November and will usually not resume them until springtime, when the

nights get warmer. I have been told that they are uninteresting and

sluggish little fellows, but that is certainly not true of my pair of Cape

Doves, which is very active and very lively day in and day out. To be

sure, this pair has consistently refused to rear its young thus far—-for

a whole year—which, however, is not such a serious deficiency since

I have several pairs of trusty Diamond Doves which rear the young

Cape Doves splendidly, feeding them until they are fully capable of

feeding themselves.


A noteworthy characteristic of some foreign Doves is that though

they hatch two youngsters regularly, they will always rear but one,,

letting the other die after three or four days. This has been the case

invariably with my Indian G-reenwing Doves—splendid, though shy,

parents which have reared youngster after youngster for me for several

seasons past. Never yet have these doves failed to rear at least one.

Their only fault lies in their extreme shyness, which often results in

their throwing eggs and even youngsters out of their flimsily built nests.


This past season has been one of the most successful so far in my

experience with foreign Doves. All varieties have reared young, except

the Blue-spotted Doves. They have laid half a dozen settings of eggs,

only to desert them each time after but a few days’ incubation. They



