4 T HE A‘ U D*USBIOIN7 B Usb EA Eat 
tection is the humane one: that we should not shoot doves while they are 
nesting. Our laws do not permit the taking of rabbits, squirrels or deer 
during the breeding season — hence, why shoot doves while their young 
are still helpless? 
This was the argument that Sen. Boughner laid before Mr. Glen Palmer, 
State Director of Conservation, the next day. Director Palmer said that 
as far as he knew, doves do not nest in Illinois during the breeding season. 
However, if this were the case, some changes should be considered. Other 
state senators, approached on the matter, agreed that doves should not be 
hunted during their nesting period. 
Sen. Boughner concluded that, if it could be proved that doves nest in 
Illinois in September, there would be a sound basis for changing or delay- 
ing the hunting season until the young are out of the nest. Seeing that 
there is too much opposition to outright prohibition of dove hunting in 
Illinois, Sen. Boughner has decided to work for the next best solution: delay 
of the hunting season. While many I.A.S. members, including your Editor, 
would much prefer to see complete prevention of dove shooting in this state, 
we are agreed that some measure of protection is better than none at all. 
Hence it becomes important to obtain accurate data on how late the 
doves actually nest in various parts of Illinois. On this point, no one seems 
to have exact information. Several Illinois bird banders report that they 
have banded Mourning Doves in the nest after September 1. Some in- 
ferences may be drawn from a thesis published by Dr. Elliott McClure in 
February, 1948, in Ames, Iowa. His paper, Research Bulletin 310, is en- 
titled, “Ecology and Management of the Mourning Dove in Cass County, 
Iowa.” It was printed by the Agricultural Experiment Station, Iowa State 
College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Entomology and Economic 
Zoology Section. 
Dr. McClure’s studies covered three years (1938-39-40) on an area in 
and around Lewis, Iowa. In Table 25, summarizing observations on 220 
acres, Dr. McClure found 166 active nests in September-October of 1938, 
and 94 active nests in the same period of 1939. Total nests found, May 
through October, were 947 in 1938 and 1085 in 1939. On the basis of these 
figures, 17.5% of all dove young in that part of Iowa were reared after 
Sept. 1 in 1938, and 8.7% in 1939. 
However, Dr. Thomas G. Scott, Head of the Section of Wildlife Re- 
search, State Natural History Survey Division, at Urbana, IIl., reports 
that studies carried on by his section in certain parts of the state since 
1948 do not show a comparable percentage of dove nesting in Illinois in 
September. Hence it becomes doubly important that we obtain complete 
figures during the next two years on how late doves are actually nesting 
in the various Illinois counties. 
Conservation Director Glen Palmer, in a recent letter to Sen. Boughner, 
writes that this year the Game Management Division of the Conservation 
Department, and also the State Natural History Survey, will make a spe- 
cial check during September to determine how many doves are nesting. 
I.A.8. members can help, too, by reporting all active dove nests found 
during their field observations. This can be carried on as part of the 
