A High Mortality Of Doves

'Haunting' Independent 'A powerful story of loss, malice and deception' Ann Cleeves The first gripping historical thriller in the Albert Lincoln series by bestselling crime writer Kate Ellis. 1919. The Derbyshire village of Wenfield is still reeling from four years of war. Just when the village has begun to regain its tranquillity, a young girl, Myrtle Bligh, is found stabbed and left in woodland, her mouth slit to accommodate a dead dove - a bird of peace. When two more women are found murdered in identical circumstances, Wenfield is thrown into a panic. With rumours of a ghostly soldier with a painted face being spotted near the scene of the murders, Inspector Albert Lincoln is sent up from London to crack the terrible case - but with the killer still on the loose, who will be the next to die at the hands of this vicious angel of death? What readers are saying about A High Mortality of Doves: 'Anutterly stunning mystery . . . Outstanding' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars 'Deliciously brilliant' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars 'Gripping' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars 'Anamazing mixture of great plotting, well developed characters and interesting historical detail' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars 'Fabulously atmospheric' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars 'A satisfyingly shocking ending' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars 'A terrific mystery' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

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

The first large-scale effort to collect dove wings by mail was made in 1964, in Arizona. Each of 2,356 dove hunters ws sent 10 wing envelopes with instructions for recording data and handling wings. A total of 992 hunters submitted 22,362 wings in 2,349 envelopes that included mourning dove (Zenaidura maroura) and white-winged doves (Zenaida asiatica). The survey yielded information on (1) age ratios of the Arizona dove harvest ; (2) the chronologic and geographic distribution of the kill within the State ; and (3) the feasibility of using a wing survey to obtain reliable age ratios and kill data. The weighted kill for Arizona was 676,974 mourning doves and 182,711 white-winged doves. The young:adult age ratio in the kill of mouning doves was 0.83:1, which was abnormally low. Correction for differential vulnerability by use of banding data raised the ratio to 1.80:1. This low age ratio probably resulted from migration of immatures to little-hunted areas before the September hunting season. The age ratio in the kill of white-winged doves was 1.78:1. Most hunters hunted within their county of residence. Hunter numbers and dove kill related closely to both human and dove populations.