EASTERN WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW 1279 



to be the first American record and is unusual in that only one nest 

 was involved. 



Some pairs may mate a second time. On July 10, during their 

 7th day of caring for young, the banded pair I had under observation 

 at Schefferville, Quebec, performed elements of the nuptial display. 

 The female trilled and fluttered her wings as she left the nest; later 

 I heard her trill while out of sight behind my blind and thought that 

 the sounds indicated a mating chase ; that same day the male twittered 

 on crossing her in flight as they exchanged visits to feed the young. 

 E. P. Wheeler, II (in litt.) once found a bird with unhatched eggs 

 as late as July 30 on the Labrador coast. 



Eggs. — The white-crowned sparrow lays three to five, and rarely 

 six eggs. They are ovate, though some may tend toward either 

 short or elongate ovate, and are slightly glossy. The ground is pale 

 greenish or creamy white and is heavily marked with spots and blotches 

 of reddish browns such as "Natal brown," "Mars brown," "chestnut," 

 "Verona brown," or "russet." There is quite a range of variation; 

 frequently the spottings obscure the entire ground, while in other 

 cases considerable ground is showing with the markings concentrated 

 toward the large end where they may become confluent. On eggs 

 with much ground showing, undermarkings of "pale neutral gray" 

 may be discernible. The measurements of 50 eggs of Z.l.leucophrys 

 average 21.5 by 15.6 millimeter; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 2J>.1 by 16.5, 21.6 by 17.0, 18.9 by 15.8, and 19.8 by 14.5 

 millimeters. 



Of 29 sets recorded, 23 sets had four eggs, 5 had five eggs, and only 

 one had six eggs. I therefore assume the three-egg clutches occa- 

 sionally reported are probably incomplete. 



A color-banded pair had four eggs on June 24, 1958, when discovered, 

 and hatching occurred July 4, so incubation is at least 11 days. The 

 female did all the brooding of the young, so it seems likely that she 

 also did all the incubating of the eggs, as I found her on the nest after 

 dark. Another bird was so bothered by the wind flapping my blind 

 during a 3-hour watch that she was off the nest as much as she was 

 on; she changed every 1% minutes as a rule, and her longest periods 

 on the eggs were 6 to 7 minutes. 



Young. — I found that for the first and second days after hatching, 

 the female turns the young, just as she turned the eggs earlier, at 

 10- to 20-minute intervals. Her brooding schedule is controlled by 

 the male's visits, for she gets off the nest when he brings her food. 

 He comes silently and directly to the nest, whereas she lands 10 to 

 15 feet away, always on the same side, then hops in slowly, nearly 

 always using the same perches. On reaching the nest she gives a few 

 alerting chips, to which the young make no vocal response until the 



