INTRODUCTION 
Management of the mourning dove (Zenaidura macroura) 
on a national and international scale is complicated. Im sucha 
large area as continental United States, this migratory game bird 
has widely varying characteristics of abundance and migratory 
movements. If this large heterogeneous area can be divided into 
smaller, more homogeneous units with mourning dove populations 
largely independent of each other, the management of these migra- 
tory birds will be placed on a better foundation. 
To determine whether there are homogeneous units within 
the mourning dove population of continental United States, it is 
necessary to band representatives of the breeding population and 
to study their migratory movements. For this purpose, a co- 
operative mourning dove banding program has been under way 
throughout the United States for several years. Data from birds 
banded during the period 1953 through 1957 are the basis for this 
preliminary analysis with these objectives: 
l To relate production areas to harvest areas. 
Zz. To outline management units composed of 
closely related production and harvest areas. 
3. To determine comparative rates of harvest by 
hunters in the different management units. 
Banding quotas designed to meet these objectives were 
established in 1955 and revised in 1958, Before this national pro- 
gram, mourning dove banding received a major contribution 
through the Southeastern Cooperative Dove Investigations, which 
began in 1948, In the national program, we hope to attain banding 
goals in 1960. 
Mourning dove management units have been discussed 
in the Mourning Dove Newsletter since 1954. Peters (1956) 
discussed banding as a tool in mourning dove management and 
emphasized the importance of locally reared doves to the hunting 
kill of a State. Aldrich, Duvall, and Geis (1958) and Aldrich and 
Duvall (1958) used racial characteristics of mourning doves to 
relate areas of harvest to areas of production. 
