NUTTALL'S WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW 1307 



Joseph Mailliard (1927) also saw Gambel's sparrows eating the seeds 

 of pigweed (Amaranthus) , which they preferred to the bait he used 

 for his traps. 



White-crowned sparrows also eat fresh blossoms and leaves. Rob- 

 ert S. Woods (1932) claims that the races of white-crowned sparrow 

 rank next to the linnet in destructiveness to vegetable crops. He 

 states they have a special fondness for young plants of the cabbage 

 family and for young beets and peas. Carrots seem to be immune. 

 Fortunately for vegetable growers, the large winter flocks that forage 

 over the farm lands in California's inland valleys leave for the north 

 in April. 



Unusual items of vegetable matter eaten are reported by several 

 observers. Lyndon L. Hargrave (1939) saw Gambel's sparrows at 

 Roosevelt Lake, Ariz., feeding daily on exposed seed pulp of fully 

 ripened pomegranates still hanging on the bush. In March 1963 I 

 watched Gambel's sparrows on the University of California campus 

 at Goleta feeding on ripened olives that had fallen to the ground. 

 Charles G. Danforth (1938) saw a Nuttall's sparrow fly up and appear 

 to drink the sap overflowing from poplars (Populus nigra), which was 

 extremely sweet and suggested sugar water. Nuttall's sparrows I 

 collected west of Guadalupe, Calif., in February 1957 had the feathers 

 about the base of the bill bright yellow with willow pollen. At College, 

 Alaska, I saw Gambel's sparrows eating staminate willow catkins and 

 the new leaf buds of willow, as well as the tiny green stalks of Equisetum 

 and the capsules of mosses. 



On several occasions I have seen white-crowned sparrows fly out 

 to catch insects in mid-air. Joseph Mailliard (1919) reports seeing 

 Nuttall's sparrows take insects by jumping into the air after them. 

 The birds usually catch insects by hopping quickly about on lawns 

 or other grassy areas and either picking up the insects from the grass 

 or catching them as they rise from it. The summer of 1950 I watched 

 Gambel's sparrows feeding on mosquitoes at the water's edge on the 

 Lower Yukon at Mountain Village, Alaska. To get an approximate 

 idea of the number of pahs with young, one had only to move slowly 

 up the Yukon in a small boat close to shore and count the pahs 

 gathering mosquitoes and other insects by the water's edge. Even 

 those Gambel's sparrows whose territories did not abut on the river 

 flew down there to forage. W. J. Maher (1959) observed young and 

 adult Gambel's sparrows on the Upper Kaolak River in northern 

 Alaska eating bread scraps and foraging actively for mosquitoes 

 near the base of his tent. They were the only species of bird that 

 fed about the tent. 



Stomach analyses of 30 Nuttall's sparrows taken from September 

 through February reveal a complete absence of insect material. 



