Texas -

With dove season opening in September in many jurisdictions, some hunters might be surprised that not all dove are "dove" in common parlance, and not all are legal to shoot.

"The first time I shot a Eurasian collared dove, I thought, 'Man, that's a big honker dove.' Then after looking closer, I thought, 'What the heck is this thing, and how much trouble am I in for shooting it?'" said Texas Fish & Game magazine editor-in-chief Don Zaidle. "We figured other hunters might run into the same thing, so we decided to provide some pre-season ID information."

Texas hosts no fewer than 11 species of doves--and only five of them are legal to hunt.

"I pride myself on knowing a great deal about wildlife in general and Texas wildlife in particular, but I had never heard of a ruddy quail dove until we researched this article," Zaidle said. "That sounds like something an Englishman would say to his sweetheart--'That's a ruddy quail, Dove, not a pheasant.'"

The article Zaidle cited provides descriptions, legal status, and distribution of the 11 species with keyed photos of each. The species include mourning dove, white-winged dove, white-tipped dove, rock dove, Eurasian collared dove, Inca dove, common ground dove, ruddy ground dove, red-billed pigeon, band-tailed pigeon, and ruddy quail-dove.

The complete article appears in the August 2009 issue of Texas Fish & Game magazine.

Article by Don Zaidle, The Outdoor Wire

Read original story