PIGEONS AND DOVES: BAND-TAILED PIGEON 297 
metallic bronze or greenish patch; back and scapulars grayish brown, partly lustrous 
changing on wing coverts to slaty blue, these feathers partly edged with white, quills 
dusky; rump and base of tail gray, end of tail with light two-inch hand , preceded by 
narrow dusky band; bill yellow tipped with black; iris pale yellow next to pupil, with 
outer ring of pink or lilac, eyelids red, legs and feet yellow (Ridgway). Adult female: 
Similar, but duller and grayer, yellow of bill and feet obscured. Young: Hind neck 
without white or metallic feathers, smaller wing coverts and feathers of chest tipped 
with paler; underparts grayish, tinged with brown on breast. 
Range. —Transition Zone from southwestern British Columbia, Utah, Colorado, 
and western Texas south through Mexico and Lower California to Nicaragua; 
winters from southwestern United States south. 
State Records.— The occurrence of the Band-tailed Pigeon at any given place 
seems to vary in different years according to the food supply. This is especially true 
of the oak-covered mountain slopes which may swarm with the birds when there is a 
heavy crop of acorns and be entirely deserted during a whole year when the acorn 
crop is a failure. Although the species is usually found at medium altitudes, 6,000- 
8,000 feet, it wanders much higher in the fall. ^Several small flocks were seen Novem¬ 
ber 2-7, 1914, near Kingston, on the upper slopes of the Mimbres Range, above 9,000 
feet (Goldman); they were noted July 28, 1903, at 10,000 feet on Pecos Baldy, and 
August 28, 1906, at 10,000 feet in the Jemez Mountains (Bailey); and a single bird 
still higher, August 18, 1905, near the summit of Mount Taylor (Hollister). 
The breeding season is unusually long. [A nest with one well-incubated egg has 
been reported at the early date of April 23, 1922,16 miles northeast of Santa Fe, at 
the remarkably high altitude of 10,500 feet, at the time well above the snow line 
(Jensen). It was nesting in late July and early August, 1908, among the oaks 
on the Animas Mountains at 5,800 feet (Goldman), three nests were found after 
the middle of August, 1901, in the Guadalupe Mountains (Bailey), [said to breed 
there (Ligon, 1927)], and nests have been found near Fort Webster at 6,500 feet 
(Henry). A nest with one egg was found June 3, 1913, at 8,000 feet in Monu¬ 
ment Pass, Sierra County. [It was nesting commonly in the Black Range, north and 
northwest of Pinos Altos, the last of July, 1920, the nests containing both eggs and 
young. A few were seen in a canyon west of Elizabethtown, Taos Mountains, June 
18 and 19, 1924 (Ligon). It breeds in the Pecos, Sacramento, and Sandia ranges 
(Leopold, 1919). In 1918 it was “fairly common in all of the high ranges, its abund¬ 
ance governed almost entirely by the abundance of mast.” On June 27, 1919, three 
were seen near Hodges on Santa Barbara River, at 8,000 feet, and July 10-18, 1919, 
a few stragglers about Cowles (Ligon). In 1922 they were rare m the Sangre de 
Cristo Range but rather common in the Jemez Mountains (Jensen).] They were 
noted in 1913-14 in the Mogollon Mountains and on the Mimbres and Gda (Rock- 
On September 15-16, 1914, they were noted along the upper branches of Blue 
River Canyon to about 7,000 feet, six miles southwest of Luna (Goldman), and 
September 17, 1915, seen on Diamond Creek (Ligon); they were taken, November 10, 
1914, 20 miles east of Silver City (Kellogg). 
Winter records are scarce. They have been reported spending the year below 
5,000 feet near Cliff, nesting in the oak draws (Bailey). [In a few instances they have 
spent the winter in the Black Range, being held there by the abundance of pinyon 
mast (Ligon, 1927).] They wintered in 1912-13, near Haut Creek, Socorro County 
at 7,500 feet (Ligon).—WAV. Cooke. 
Nest.—U sually in scattered communities, a platform of twigs in trees, 8 to 30 
feet from the ground, but eggs sometimes laid on the ground. Eggs: 1 to 2, white. 
