300 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
dark brown; bare skin around eye bluish; bill black, angle of mouth, legs, and feet 
pinkish red. Adult female: Similar but paler and iridescence reduced. Young: 
Much duller than female, black ear spots and iridescence 
wanting and general tone gray; many feathers with whitish 
edging. 
Range. — Breeds chiefly in Upper Sonoran and Lower 
Transition Zones in interior British Columbia, Saskatchewan, 
and Manitoba south through the western United States and 
Mexico; locally in Guatemala and Lower California; winters 
from Washington (rarely) and southern Colorado, south to 
Panama. • 
State Records.— The Western Mourning Dove breeds over most of New Mexico 
below 7,000 feet and occasionally somewhat higher as at McGaffy’s Camp in the 
Zuni Mountains at 8,200 feet, June, 1909 (Goldman); Tres Piedras, 8,000 feet, July 
11-19, 1892 (Loring); [Santa Fe region, up to 8,000 feet in the yellow pines (Jensen, 
1922)]; and at Chloride, nearly to 8,000 feet (Blinn). [On June 23, 1919, they were 
very abundant on the Little Rio Grande, 8 to 15 miles southeast of Taos, 7,300-7,500 
feet (Ligon).] On August 8, 1920, Major Long’s party, after following nearly the 
whole length of the Mora River, recorded the “dove” as having been noticed in all the 
country they had passed over (in James, 1823, vol. II, p. 97). [At Raton, June 25-28, 
1916, three pairs bred on a 160 acre tract (Howarth). At Lake Burford May-June, 
1918, they were abundant, breeding in the forested hills (Wetmore). In the Pecos 
Valley between Roswell and Fort Sumner in June, 1918, next to the Desert Horned 
Larks they were the commonest birds. Several nests with eggs were found June 17 and 
18. “In 1926 they were more numerous than ever before observed in the State. They 
were extremely common in the lower and intermediate elevations and were abundant 
up to above 8,000 feet (Ligon).] The nesting season extends over a large part of the 
summer, for in addition to nesting early in the spring-—eggs May 5, 1913, Chloride, 
6,200 feet, [and May 7 and 8, 1920, Animas Mountains] (Ligon)—as is usual with 
other birds, they continue the egg-laying late into the fall, and even as late as Septem¬ 
ber 9,1905, were found sitting on eggs at Rio Puerco (Hollister). Anthony recorded a 
strange case of late nesting in the summer of 1886 at Apache in Grant County. 
“After the last of the spring migrants had disappeared, no Doves were seen about 
Apache nor in the adjoining ranges until August 20, after which they were very 
abundant; between August 25 and September 5, several dozen were shot for food and 
about eight out of every ten females contained eggs that would undoubtedly have 
been laid within the next day or two. On September 6 a nest was found with two 
eggs, which the parent was incubating.” 
During the fall they move up slightly into the mountains and were found above 
the pinyon pine belt in the San Mateo Mountains, August 7-20, 1905 (Hollister); up 
to 7,500 feet in Santa Clara Canyon in the Jemez Mountains, August 25, 1906; 
Lake Burford, 7,500 feet October 3, 1904, and Questa, 8,100 feet, August 15, 1904 
(Bailey); [on September 12-Octobcr 8, 1916, they were still common on the open 
desert and at the lower edges of the cedar groves, in western New Mexico (Skinner)]; 
they were noted in Union County at Clapham, October 24, 1893, and later in many 
places (E. T. Seton). 
Some remain in New Mexico during the winter, in fact they are not rare in the 
lower parts of southern New Mexico at this season. They winter regularly as far 
north as Hagcrman in the Pecos Valley, Socorro in the Rio Grande Valley, and else¬ 
where throughout the southern part of the State (Ligon, 1927). They are common 
in winter at Mesilla (Ford); common, January 1-5, 1903, at Jarilla (Grant); in the 
lower country around Carlsbad were seen occasionally in January, 1915; were said 
Fig. 47. Tail of 
Western Mourn¬ 
ing Dove 
