HARRIS 1 SPARROW 1255 



Because of the secretive nature of these shy birds, neither these 

 first parties nor subsequent visitors to the area were able to observe 

 details of courtship, nest building, or length of incubation. Of birds 

 collected as they flushed from the nest, all were females. In some 

 cases only one bird was found near the nest; in other instances the 

 male bird was on guard in the tip of a nearby spruce and gave the 

 alarm. At Nest 4 with four eggs, (Semple and Sutton, 1932), a 

 female flushed at 5 feet was found, upon dissection, to contain a fully 

 formed egg in the oviduct, indicating a tendency to set before the 

 full clutch is deposited. During early incubation the females flushed 

 off at 3 to 10 feet, and refused to return as long as intruders remained 

 in the area. Later the birds returned in half an hour or so. 



Olin S. Pettingill (Semple and Sutton, 1932) describes ruefully the 

 bird's behavior at another of the nests as follows: 



I set up my blind five feet away from the nest and attempted to make photo- 

 graphs. * * * The birds continued to wink, one continuously, during my presence. 

 After V/i hours one of the birds sang for a while a short distance away and re- 

 turned suddenly to continue with the racket. 



For three hours I remained in the blind. I could see no indication throughout 

 my stay that either parent would approach the nest. Both birds passed from 

 one tree to another around the blind, making this circling a continuous perform- 

 ance. Not once did they drop to the ground nor come any nearer than this 

 particular circle of trees. During the last hour I remained in the blind, the birds 

 were as excited as they were the first hour. Had I been standing there without a 

 blind they probably would have been no more alarmed. I feel sure that if I had 

 left the blind near the nest the birds would have deserted. 



Arthur A. Allen (1951) comments, "* * * the bird is so wary that 

 photography is extremely difficult; our single picture of the bird on 

 its nest gave us more trouble than any other. We spent nearly a 

 week getting the bird accustomed to the blind, and then at the first 

 click of the shutter she left and did not return until I gave up after 

 two hours of waiting." In retrospect, I feel more fortunate than I 

 realized at the time, to have "caught" a single photograph of another 

 of Allen's nests in the summer of 1934. Possibly because the incuba- 

 tion period was well advanced, this bird returned to her nest within 

 half an hour after the "go-way-ster" had departed and the neophyte 

 photographer had endured the 10,000th mosquito. At any rate, it 

 afforded an excellent opportunity to observe these handsome birds 

 at close range, to compare the plumages of the male and his definitely 

 duller mate, and to admire the artistry of their carefully concealed 

 home among the gray-green lichens and sprigs of arctic crowberry. 



Eggs. — The Harris' sparrow usually lays from 3 to 5 ovate eggs and 

 they are slightly glossy. The ground may be white or greenish- 

 white, heavily speckled, spotted, and blotched with "Natal brown," 

 "Rood's brown," "Mar's brown," or "russet." One set in the 



