256 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 6 1 , FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



littoral, living in boulders or on cliffs, although they ascend into 

 grassy areas to nest. Here, as elsewhere, the song sparrow 

 seems to delight in finding a mass of driftwood, which it substi- 

 tutes for the brush heaps of interior country in the south. 



Song sparrows often frequent buildings, especially unused 

 barabaras or huts. In a cabin on Herbert Island, August 22, 1936, 

 Scheffer found 30 dead adult and immature song sparrows, to- 

 gether with several individuals of other species. Evidently, they 

 had entered by a small opening and failed to find a way out. 

 On Segula Island, I found a dead immature song sparrow float- 

 ing in a keg of water at a trapper's cabin. 



On Kasatochi Island, a song sparrow was seen within the 

 crater rim, which rises about 1,000 feet above the beach. How- 

 ever, the inner walls of the crater descend abruptly to a crater 

 lake, far below, creating an aspect of a sloping cliff above water, 

 as on the seashore. 



These sparrows nest in the grass on slopes adjacent to the 

 beach. We found a nest at East Anchor Cove, Unimak Island, 

 May 19, 1936. It was in ryegrass on a slope a considerable dis- 

 tance from the beach. The nest was tucked away under a mass 

 of dead grass and was made of fine, smooth, nicely bleached grass 

 stems. There were three downy young. 



A similar nest, in a similar situation, but abandoned, was 

 found on Unimak Island, June 7, 1936. On Kiska, June 5, 1937, 

 Steenis found a nest containing three eggs. It was placed deep 

 in the vegetation and was built of fine grass stems. Incidentally, 

 on that same day, Douglas Gray reported a curious perform- 

 ance — a song sparrow followed him along the beach for about 

 a mile. 



Cahn (1947) reports that the song sparrow was abundant at 

 Unalaska Island from April 7 to September 22, 1945. He found 

 that the young left the nest by early July ; a second nesting was 

 suggested by observing a nest with newly hatched young on 

 August 8, 1945. 



Although there may be local movements due to the approach 

 of winter, the song sparrows of the Aleutian district are perma- 

 nent residents. Cahn reports them to be absent in winter in the 

 Dutch Harbor area, but Taber found them all winter on Adak, 

 and Sutton and Wilson (1946) found them in winter on Attu. 

 As this sparrow evidently finds its food on the beach at the tide's 

 edge, subsistence is possible year round where the sea never 

 freezes and where the ebb and flow of tide is dependable. 



