ABSTRACT 
Tentative mourning dove management units for the United 
States are outlined on the basis of an analysis of bandings during 
the 1953-57 period. The three units --~ Eastern, Central, and 
Western -- most nearly meet the criteria of an ideal management 
unit: a unit that produces the doves it harvests and does not pro- 
duce doves that are harvested by other units. As an average for 
the three management units, 95 percent of a unit’s hunting kill is 
produced inside the unit and 96 percent of a unit’s harvested pro- 
duction is shot inside the unit or in Mexico and Central America. 
Hence the three units are practically independent of each other. 
These conclusions must be considered only tentative because they 
are based on insufficient band recoveries and on weighting procedures 
that need to be evaluated through further research. 
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