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Randomly selected dove-call routes were first selected and 
run in the States of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee during the 1959 
dove census. In 1961, the States of Arizona, California, 
Florida, Maryland, and Virginia also established and ran ran¬ 
domly selected dove census routes. 
The States of Idaho, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Missouri, 
Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota established and censused ran¬ 
domly selected routes during 1963. This year’s data, therefore, 
provide the first comparison of random routes in successive 
years for those States. 
In 196k, in addition to the regular management routes, 
random routes were selected and run in the States of Colorado, 
Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, and 
Washington. These routes will be run again in 1965 and the 
comparable data will be incorporated into the 1965 Mourning 
Dove Status Report. 
Long-term trends 
A base year was selected for the purpose of showing long¬ 
term trends in a State’s breeding dove population index. Annual 
percentage changes have been applied to the base figure (aver¬ 
age doves heard calling per route) to give an adjusted figure 
which shows the true relation of indexes from year to year. 
The selection of a base figure is necessary because not all 
routes are censused each year. 
The average number of doves heard calling on routes cen¬ 
sused in two successive years in each State has been adjusted 
according to percentage change from the previous year. This 
procedure may be illustrated with data from Alabama where 1957 
was selected as a base year (table 3)* In that year, the 
average number of doves heard calling per route was 21 . 1 . In 
1958 > the percentage change from 1957 in counts on comparable 
routes was an increase of 12.8 percent, so the base figure of 
21.1 was adjusted upward by 12.8 percent to a level of 23.8. 
In 1959* the percentage change from 195$ in counts on compa- 
arable routes was a decrease of 21.6 percent. The 1958 "aver¬ 
age heard" figure of 23.8 was, therefore, decreased 21.6 
percent to the 1959 level of 18.7 percent. 
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