Table 43.--Disappearance of Some Massachusetts Mourning Doves 
Unaged birds banded at the Austin Ornithological Research Station 
(after S. H. Low 1935) 
Symbols... Tx Ix ce 7a " 
Time Number Per Cent Per Cent Mean Rate 

Intervals Surviving Surviving Disappearing of 
Between Years Disappearance 
End of 1 year 81 out of 519 15.64% 8.1% 
End of 2 years 27 out of 359 7.5% 2.1% 
End of 3 years 10 out of 18) 5.4% 1.3% 
End of k years 3 out of 7h 4.1% 

3-year Totals and Mean 28.5% 11.54% 1,0% 

Characteristics of the sample studied 
Most of the recovery reports of mourning doves emanate from 
hunters, their monthly peak occurring in September. In order to get 
the effects of this early mortality into a life table, I used Saptem- 
ber 1 as a starting date. Among the 319 recoveries of mourning doves 
banded as juveniles that I studies at Patuxent Research Refuge, only 
8 per cent had been banded in September. This agrees rather well 
with a graph of monthly nests for Alabama published by Moore and 
Pearson (1939). Apparently only a minor fraction of the continental 
population receives no consideration when a life table for this 
species is set up with the first age interval starting September 1. 
Abridged life tables 
The oldest mourning dove that I encountered among records 
of juvenile-banded birds was 36-326),05, which was banded by H. S. 
Peters, at Auburn, Ala., on July 6, 1936, and later reported shot 
in Barbour County, Ala., according to a letter of W. S. Childs dated 
December 20, 1945. Because this report lacked a definite recovery 
date, I did not use it in the life tables that follow. The next 
oldest bird had been reported in its sixth year of life. 
Table hl.—-Abridged Life Table for Juvenile-Banded Mourning 
Doves 
Based on 286 birds reported shot and 11 birds found dead. Original 
dates of banding extended from 1926 to 190. Each age interval 
starts September 1. 
@ Intervals In Years - = ~ = ce r) 
er reported dea 
Alive at start 297 106 W3 26 8 5 485 
Mort. rate (per cent per year) 64 ~——— 56—_--_} 
102 
