Early Nesting of the Band-Tailed Pigeon
Early Nesting of the Band-tailed Pigeon
As supplementing the nesting notes on the Band-tailed Pigeon in THE CONDOR for January, 1913, the following notes from one of my old note-books may be of interest.
March 6, 1877, Laguna Mountains, twenty miles north of Campo, San Diego County, California: Columba fasciata; one egg; parent flew from nest, and from tree to tree, fluttering its wings while perched, evidently to lead me away. Bird shot and preserved; on dissection proved to be a male. Egg near hatching. Nest very slight and flat, composed of oak twigs, placed on a small branch against a larger branch of a deciduous oak, then bare of leaves, about eight feet from the ground, in a forest of mixed oak and pine, at about 5,500 feet altitude. No other pigeon seen.
This is the nest alluded to on page 124 of Bendire’s Life Histories of North American Birds. The context implies that this nest was found in Arizona but this was a mistake. I have seen no Band-tailed Pigeons in San Diego County now for two or three years.
