The border States of Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana 
derive a higher percentage of their hunting kill from the Eastern 
unit than from the Central unit, but contribute more of their pro- 
duction to the kill in the Central unit. To illustrate; Louisiana 
derives 14 percent of its hunting kill from the Eastern unit and 
5 percent from the Central unit. On the other hand, Louisiana 
contributes 4 percent of its harvested production to the hunting 
kill of the Eastern unit and 10 percent to the Central unit. 
Since the border States of Missouri, Arkansas, and 
Louisiana have production and harvest affinities to both the Eastern 
and the Central management units, it was necessary to evaluate 
the effect on the independence of the Eastern and Central units 
when these States were shifted from one unit to the other (table 4). 
To meet the criteria of an ideal management unit, the percentage 
of the harvested production of a unit that is shot outside the unit 
of banding in the United States should be reduced to a minimum. 
Also, the percentage of the unit kill produced outside the unit should 
be minimal. These criteria are met best when Missouri and Arkansas 
are included in the Central unit and Louisiana in the Eastern unit. 
These conclusions are tentative. 
Border States between the Central and Western units are 
Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. Band recoveries 
were insufficient to align these States definitely with one unit or 
the other. 
CONTRIBUTION OF PRODUCTION TO THE HUNTING KILL 
Table 5 shows where the doves produced in a State are 
shot. Data are grouped in three categories: (1) Shot in State of 
banding; (2) shot outside State of banding but within the management 
unit; and (3) shot outside the management unit. States such as 
Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California each take 90 to 100 per- 
cent of their harvested production within the State of banding. 
These same States, however, receive 16 to 69 percent of their 
total hunting kill from doves produced outside the State (table 6). 
The data of table 5, grouped according to management units, 
are shown in figure 3. Only a small percentage of the harvested 
production of a unit was shot outside the management unit of banding 
but inside the United States: 5 percent for the Eastern unit, 6 per- 
cent for the Central unit, and 1 percent for the Western unit. As 
an average for the three management units, 96 percent of a unit's 
harvested production was shot inside the unit or in Mexico and 
Central America. 
