12 
93% in-state direct recoveries. Migrational homing to nest- 
ing sites has been demonstrated by Tomlinson et al. (1960) 
and Harris (1961a). Because males so readily return to the 
area of previous nesting, the difference in direct and indi- 
rect in-state recoveries of adult males is probably not due 
to doves failing to return to the State, but due to reduced 
mortality for the segment of the male population that did 
migrate. 
Chronology of the Harvest of 
Doves Banded in Missouri 
Recovery data indicate that about 60% of the harvest 
of Missouri-banded doves occurs during the first 10 days 
of September and over 95% of the adult and 93% of the 
immature harvest occurs during September and October. 
More than 88% of Missouri-banded adult males were har- 
vested during September; female harvest during Septem- 
ber was less than 78% of total harvest. About 99% of the 
harvest of adult males occurred during September—October; 
adult female harvest during that period was less than 89%. 
Lewis and Morrison (1978) estimated 61% of the dove har- 
vest in Oklahoma occurred in the first week of September 
and Orr (1973) found more doves harvested in Louisiana 
during September than during later portions of the hunt- 
ing season, Thus, our findings are similar to those of other 
comparable studies. 
Marion et al. (1981) found that the percentage of immi- 
grant doves in Florida’s harvest increased during the second 
10-day period of open season (October 11-21), then sta- 
bilized at about 66% until the season ended on January 31. 
States Contributing to the 
Missouri Dove Harvest 
Direct recoveries of mourning doves banded elsewhere 
and recovered in Missouri were from States in the Eastern 
and Central Management Units. States contributing to the 
Missouri dove harvest were primarily those that border Mis- 
souri (Arkansas, Illinois, lowa, Kansas, and Kentucky). Mis- 
sissippi, North Dakota, and Wisconsin were the only States 
not bordering Missouri that had banded doves recovered 
in Missouri. More than 70% of the recoveries of doves 
banded out of State and recovered in Missouri were re- 
covered in the eastern region of the State. 
Most recoveries in Missouri of doves banded outside the 
State occurred during September, Of these, the number of 
recoveries of immatures decreased sharply after the first 
10 days in September; recoveries of adult doves were more 
evenly distributed through September and October. This 
suggests immatures had moved out of Missouri by mid-Sep- 
tember. 
Doves banded out of State made up less than 7% of the 
banded doves recovered in Missouri. Adult doves from other 
States contributed slightly over 5% of the banded adults 
harvested in Missouri and nearly 8% of the Missouri har- 
vest of banded immatures consisted of doves from other 
States. More doves from other States were harvested in east- 
ern Missouri than in any other region; there, 28% of the 
immature harvest and 8% of the adult harvest consisted 
of doves from other States. 
Direct Recovery Rates 
Recovery rates for immatures were significantly higher 
than for adults; immatures were 1.3 times more vulnerable 
to hunters than were adults, The direct recovery rate for 
mourning doves of all ages banded in western Missouri was 
significantly lower than the direct recovery rates for cen- 
tral and eastern Missouri. The latter finding agrees with 
the findings of Henry (1970) that mourning doves banded 
in western Missouri have lower direct recovery rates than 
doves banded elsewhere in the State. 
Orr (1973) reported that direct recovery rates of adult 
female doves in Tennessee were higher than those for males, 
and Watts (1969) also found the direct recovery rates for 
female mourning doves in Louisiana higher than those of 
adult males. Our findings in Missouri differed from these; 
direct recovery rates for adult males (2.6%) did not differ 
significantly from those for adult females (2.3%). 
Survival Rates 
Survival rates for adults (42%) and immatures (25%) 
computed in our study generally agree with the findings 
of other studies (Table 17), However, there are some dif- 
ferences. Estimated adult and immature survival rates of 
doves in Tennessee were similar (Orr 1973) but both were 
lower than those computed for Missouri. Dunks (1977) com- 
puted adult survival rates in Texas similar to those in 
Missouri, but his estimate of immature survival rate was 
considerably higher. In all studies reported in Table 17, 
immatures had lower survival rates than adults. 
Dunks et al. (1982) found that survival rates for doves 
banded in different States in the Central Management Unit 
were variable. The differences in survival rates of doves 
computed in our study from those for other studies seem 
sufficient to prevent applying survival estimates computed 
for Missouri to other States, 
The survival rate of adult male doves banded during our 
study was significantly higher than the female survival rate: 
47 vs. 31%, respectively. Higher survival rates of males 
were also reported from Louisiana (Orr 1973) and for the 
Eastern Management Unit (Hayne 1975), Assuming a 1:1 
tertiary sex ratio, there is a potential for a surplus of males 
in the population. Differential survival rates and winter- 
ing habits of the two sexes could lead to drastic fluctua- 
tions in sex ratios. If sex ratios fluctuate drastically, that 
could affect the interpretation (or validity) of call-count 
data, because unmated male doves coo at much higher rates 
than mated ones (Baskett et al. 1978). 
