INVESTIGATIONS OF METHODS OF DETERMINING ABUNDANCE OF BREEDING 
MOURNING DOVES IN CERTAIN EASTERN STATES 
By Allen J. Duvall and Chandler S. Robbins 
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D. C. and Laurel, Md. 
Plan 
Until very recently no satisfactory method was known for evaluating 
Mourning Dove populations during the nesting season. Therefore in the 
spring of 1950, the Fish and Wildlife Service directed several of its 
personnel to investigate methods for obtaining this information. 
Our 1950 investigations were pointed toward finding the mst 
practical method from the standpoint of field operations consistent 
with dove behavior. Efforts in 1951 were directed toward determining 
the most favorable period during the nesting season of the Mourning 
Dove to employ the call count method worked out ih 1950. 
Location 
In 1950 field work was conducted in the Hagerstown Valley, Maryland; 
York and Lancaster Counties, Pennsylvania; the Lake Plains Section of the 
Central Lowlands physiographic province, from Erie County, Pennsylvania 
to Rochester, New York; and on eastern Long Island (Suffolk County), 
New York. 
Field work began on May 18 and terminated on June 30, 1950; ad- 
ditional data were gathered that year during two roadside counts and 
two calling counts in the vicinity of the Patuxent Research Refuge, 
Laurel, Maryland, in July. In 1951 investigations were conducted in © 
Howard and Prince Georges Counties, Maryland, and in Fairfax County 
and Alexandria, Virginia, all within a radius of 25 miles of the 
District of Columbia. The Virginia area is primarily rural residential, 
in various stages of development, and small farms whereas the two areas 
in Maryland are principally farmland planted to corn and tobacco, with 
some extensive pasture. Route #1 (Howard County, Md.) and Route #3 
(ftlexandria, and Fairfax County, Va.) are in the Piedmont, while 
Route #2 (Prince Georges County, Md.) is in the Coastal Plain Physio- 
graphic Province. 
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