In past years a preliminary version of the Dove Status 
Report was not available to other conservation agencies until 
the day of the regulations meeting. This year the preliminary 
report was completed and sent to State and Federal representa¬ 
tives 1 week before the regulations meeting. This distribution 
was made possible by the promptness of individual cooperators 
who sent their data, as requested for the first time, direct 
to the Migratory Bird Populations Station immediately after 
completion of their routes. This early distribution of a 
preliminary version of the annual status report serves more 
adequately the needs of the Dove Regulations Committee. The 
final version of the Dove Status Report is also distributed to 
all cooperators and is available to interested organizations 
and individuals. * 
PROCEDURE 
The call-count method 
Call-count routes were established after field investiga¬ 
tions in 1950-51 had demonstrated the feasibility of the techni¬ 
que. These investigations were reported by Foote et al. (1952). 
Each route is 20 miles long and has 20 listening stations located 
1 mile apart. Call-counts begin one-half hour before sunrise 
and continue for 2 hours. A record is kept during the survey 
period of all doves seen or heard calling along the survey route. 
Since it has been found that doves heard calling provide a less 
variable index than doves seen, the figures for numbers of doves 
heard calling are used to calculate indexes. Figures for num¬ 
bers of total calls and doves seen are presently not used for 
index calculations. These data will be examined as soon as 
personnel are available to determine whether this information 
provides a better index to dove populations than do numbers of 
calling doves. Information on the call-count method and pro¬ 
cedures for randomly selecting call-count routes were presented 
by Foote, Peters, and Finkner (1958). 
The only currently available dove population index, national 
and international in scope, is the call-count survey. The sur¬ 
vey has limitations and possible biases which require further 
study. One important limitation is that the survey provides an 
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