1326 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 3 



name. At College the males displayed more forcefully, but still not 

 so vigorously as had the Puget Sound males. The sparseness of the 

 breeding population and the cold and inclement weather at Mountain 

 Village could conceivably explain the lack of territorial display there, 

 but at College, where Garnbel's sparrows were abundant and the 

 weather more favorable, other factors must have been responsible, 

 the most likely one being the absence of females during this phase. 



At Mountain Village newly arrived Gambel's sparrows sang weakly 

 and showed no attachment to any piece of ground. If I approached 

 them they flew straight away for distances up to a mile. Unlike the 

 NuttalTs or Puget Sound sparrows in comparable stages of develop- 

 ment, they showed no tendency to face me and sing, or even to seek 

 shelter nearby. Some days after arrival, however, each male had 

 established a headquarters where he spent the greater part of each day. 

 The area still did not merit the term "territory" in the strict sense, for 

 the males sometimes left their headquarters for hours. I saw some 

 pursuits, but also cases of complete tolerance of one male by another. 

 When the females arrived, each pair restricted their activities to an 

 area, including the male's headquarters, but, with one notable exception 

 discussed in the next section, neighboring males never had violent 

 disputes such as I saw commonly at Friday Harbor. 



One unique feature of behavior I observed at Mountain Village was 

 that a few pairs nested where only one element of the typical breeding 

 territory, dense shrubbery, was present. To reach the other two 

 essential elements, namely grass and open ground, these pairs regularly 

 flew from their nesting areas above the village a mile or so down to 

 the river's edge. There they foraged, and if they had young they car- 

 ried food back to the nest. To make these trips they had to pass 

 directly through the nesting areas of other Gambel's sparrows, which 

 did not appear to resent the intrusion. This is the only case I know 

 where the three essential elements of the breeding territory were not 

 contained in an area inhabited exclusively by a pair. 



At College the settlement of the ground followed a more conventional 

 pattern. Except for the fact that the males arrived first, territory 

 establishment contained all the behavior elements of the Friday 

 Harbor-Puget Sound sparrow population. Each male became at- 

 tached soon after arrival to an area where he sang loudly and regularly. 

 I saw frequent pursuits and fights, but they were neither so common 

 nor so intense as those at Friday Harbor. 



Courtship. — Courtship in Gambel's sparrow begins just as the males 

 are achieving full breeding condition. Therefore the courtship period 

 is shorter than those in the Nuttall's and Puget Sound sparrows, which 

 begin this phase in a less advanced stage of gonad development. As 

 in the Puget Sound sparrows wintering at Berkeley, there was no 



