Banding plays an extremely important role in the management of the mourning dove, the most important single migratory game bird species in North America in terms of hunter harvest.

Tentative mourning dove management units for the United States are outlined on the basis of an analysis of bandings during the 1953-57 period. The three units -- Eastern, Central, and Western -- most nearly meet the criteria of an ideal management unit: a unit that produces the doves it harvests and does not produce doves that are harvested by other units. As an average for the three management units, 95 percent of a unit's hunting kill is produced inside the unit and 96 percent of a unit's harvested production is shot inside the unit or in Mexico and Central America. Hence the three units are practically independent of each other. These conclusions must be considered only tentative because they are based on insufficient band recoveries and on weighting procedures that need to be evaluated through further research.

Nicely published (apparently with subsidy) by the Wildlife Management Institute, Washington, D.C. Comprehensively deals with the most numerous, widespread, and heavily hunted of North American gamebirds. Among the topics covered in 29 contributions: classification and distributions, migration, nesting, reproductive strategy, growth and maturation, feeding habits, diseases, survey procedures, population trends, care of captive mourning doves, and hunting. The final chapter identifies research and management needs. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Of 37,000 reports of mourning dove band recoveries in the files of the Migratory Bird Populations Station on October 30, 1967, 1,120 came from Mexico, and half of those were from Jalisco and Michoacan, both in west-central Mexico; Jalisco alone accounted for nearly a third. Few recoveries were reported from the area between the U.S. border and mid-Mexico. Generally, lower proportions of total recoveries were reported from Mexico under the current pre-hunting season banding program for flying birds than were reported from the nestling dove banding program of the 1950's. Bandings in the northern U.S. States produced proportionally more recoveries than bandings in the southern U.S. States. Doves banded over diverse areas of the United States were harvested in common migration with wintering areas in Mexico. Possible explanations of the heterogeneous distribution of recoveries throughout Mexico are discussed. Of the banded birds for which "how obtained" was known, 83.5 percent were reported as shot (or killed) and only 3.2 percent reported as captured or trapped. Among 658 persons who gave their name and residence when they reported bands, 95.7 percent had typically Spanish surnames and were residents of Mexico. Depending upon actual banding reporting rates and the representativeness of the banding data analyzed, the Mexican dove harvest may equal or exceed harvests in leading U.S. States. Factors influencing band reporting rates must be resolved before Mexico's importance as a harvest area can be accurately determined.

Most mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) banded in eastern Missouri in 1968-76 and recovered outside the State moved south-southeast into Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. Most doves banded in central and western Missouri and recovered elsewhere moved south-southwest into Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, Mexico, and Central America. Several central Missouri doves moved southeast.