. California fish and game. Fisheries -- California; Game and game-birds -- California; Fishes -- California; Animal Population Groups; Pêches; Gibier; Poissons. CALIFORNIA PISH AND 179 crops. The small amount of grain taken in California is negligible and is so considered by ranchers. On the other hand, its value as a destroyer of the seeds of noxious weeds is unequaled by any other bird in the state. Some idea of the enormous quantities of weed seeds consumed by doves can be obtained from the results of the examination of a dove's stomach and crop made by the United States Biological
. California fish and game. Fisheries -- California; Game and game-birds -- California; Fishes -- California; Animal Population Groups; Pêches; Gibier; Poissons. CALIFORNIA PISH AND 179 crops. The small amount of grain taken in California is negligible and is so considered by ranchers. On the other hand, its value as a destroyer of the seeds of noxious weeds is unequaled by any other bird in the state. Some idea of the enormous quantities of weed seeds consumed by doves can be obtained from the results of the examination of a dove's stomach and crop made by the United States Biological Survey: 8eed,<t Slender paspahiiii {Pu'spalum setaceum) 2,000 Orange liawkweed (Ilieracium auranticmn) 4,820 Hoary vervain {Verhena stricta) 950 ('aroliua cranesbill (Geranium carolinianum) 120 Yellow wood sorrell (O-vaUs stricta) 50 Panic grass {I'anicum sp.) 620 Other weeds of various kinds 40 Total ^ 8,600. F'iG. 34. Captive mourning doves foraging at the old Hayward Game Farm. Photograph by H. C. Bryant. The examination of the crops and stomachs of doves taken in California has substantiated this evidence. The crop, and even the gullet, has been found filled to its utmost capacity with weed seeds. The stomach and crop of a dove taken at Lakeside, San Diego County, contained more than 100 seeds of the coyote vine or mock orange {Cucurhita foetidissima). Hundreds of seeds of filaree, mustard, turkey mullein and tumble weed have been taken from other stomachs. Examina- tions of nestling birds have shown that they are fed entirely on weed seeds. Since the seeds destroyed are those of some of the worst weed pests in the state, and since they are destroyed in such very large numbers, the western mourning dove must be considered a valuable bird from the economic standpoint. The mourning dove makes a satisfactory aviary bird. Mr. L. W. Hammond of Fillmore, California, breeding from a single pair of doves, had a flock of over forty in the space of three years. Each female nested
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