fox sparrow: western mountain 1429 



intervals of from two to five minutes. Twice the male brought food for the 

 young. When the nest was in the sunshine the panting female shaded it with 

 spread wings. All the feces were eaten by the parent. 



This female was watched caring for the young on June 21. It worked about 

 the person seated close by, continually picking up small objects and uttering a 

 faint seet. The wing ends were drooped and the tail was raised free of the ground; 

 often it was turned somewhat at an angle sideways from the axis of the body. 

 The male hopped about farther away, at a three-meter radius, and uttered a 

 much louder metallic Mink — then broke into full song. All the food was gathered 

 within a radius of three meters of the nest. 



Another nest containing nearly grown young birds was watched on June 21, 

 1925. The female foraged within eight meters of the nest, but the male went 

 farther, sometimes twice that distance, to get food. The male was seen to gather 

 insects and carry them to the female which took them in her bill and then carried 

 i hem to the young birds. Although some of the food was obtained from among 

 t he leaves on the ground, most of it was picked off the growing vegetation. Twice 

 the female picked off bits of green leaves of miner's lettuce (Montia) and fed them 

 to the young. The remainder of the food was made up of insects. It looked to 

 the observer as though the birds saw the insects best when they were between 15 

 and 30 centimeters distant. 



A fox sparrow's nest that was found June 19, 1925, contained two half-fledged 

 young which left when the nest was looked into. They were tolled out by the 

 frantic actions and voicings of the two parents, which flopped along the ground 

 under and through the bushes, giving their klinks in rapid succession. Other 

 sympathetic fox sparrows came near. 



How long after hatching the young remain in the nest is unknown, 

 but as Grinnell (MS. in Linsdale, 1928) observes: "When young are 

 nearly ready to leave the nest they will jump out and begin hopping 

 away at even a slight disturbance. They go in different directions 

 and are sometimes led away by the parents independently. After 

 the birds have once jumped out of the nest they will not stay in it 

 even if they are replaced." 



How long the young remain with the parents after leaving the 

 nesl is likewise unknown. Wright M. Pierce (1921) tells how, while 

 hunting for nests of stephensi, "W T e had not gone far until we kicked 

 out a rather young fox sparrow from the brush, and then another. 

 The parents were near at hand and played the broken-wing trick 

 to perfection in their attempts to coax us away, all the while uttering 

 their metallic 'chip.'" Jewett et al. (1953) write that in Washington 

 "In the higher mountains, companies of 2 to 4 fox sparrows, usually 

 family groups of adults and immatures still together, were commonly 

 seen at least until the latter part of August, and often fully fledged 

 3 7 oung birds were observed teasing for attention. At this time of 

 year the full song was no longer heard, and the birds remain silent, 

 or utter merely a chek or chirp call note." 



Voice. — The same authors comment of olivacea: "Few bird songs 

 possess the attractive clear ringing quality of that of the fox sparrow. 

 One noted June 5 at Cheney was 40 feet up in a dead alder singing 



