Deep-fried dove tastes freedom

NO BIRD has a more sorrowful way of lamenting tragedy than the grief-stricken mourning dove.

- Stuart Winter

Early American settlers coined the bird's forlorn name because of the way its gentle coos fashion such a melancholy dirge.

"I cry for you, you, you..." the dove's requiem peels incessantly throughout the spring and summer, a portent to the fate awaiting so many of its kinfolk.

Up to 20 million mourning doves will be "harvested" this autumn across boondocks and backwoods from California to the Carolinas by hunters with big guns and bigger appetites.